The local name for barn owl in Brazil is Rasga mortalha, which means shroud tearer. The name is chosen because the shriek of the barn owl is thought to be the sound of the owl tearing shroud. Thus the owl is linked to death and is considered an ill omen.
Back in 2005 I borrowed a copy of Claus Konig's "Owls of the world". There I learned about a rare owl that dwells in fragments of Atlantic rain-forest. Since then I have been thinking about this bird; the short-browed owl. This trip was an attempt to find short-browed owl.
July 8th. Tui and the boys leave the house early, so after walking Maile, the dog, I return her to an empty house. I grab my pack and say goodbye to Maile, and walk to the MAX light rail. I arrive at the airport with an abundance of time. At boarding time, the lady at the gate announces there is a problem with the plane's door. Soon, it becomes apparent that I am not going to make my connection at Houston. I do my best to stay calm and wait. Eventually my name is called and the gate lady tells me that I can switch flights, and go via Chicago. I feel really lucky that she has done this for me, and everything works out. I fly to Chicago, and change there to a Sao Paulo bound flight.
July 9th. I have been experiencing a trapped nerve for about 6 weeks. Standing and walking had been fine, but sitting is hard. Despite a beer and a muscle relaxant, the red-eye to Sao Paulo is painful and it is really hard to sleep.
I meet Alex Mesquita, my guide (cariamabirding@gmail.com), at arrivals in Sao Paulo. Alex is a really warm and engaging guy. He's a biologist who works full time as a bird guide and is also ebird's Brazil coordinator. I immediately take a liking to Alex, and despite some struggles to bridge our language gap, we spend most of our trip talking. It's a long drive out of Sao Paulo, which is truly one of the world's mega cities. From the highway it's modern looking place that has a decidedly North American feel. We pass under a bridge, over which Jair Bolosonaro's supporters mostly dressed in yellow and green. We stop for lunch at a big roadside buffet, a good option for a vegan like me. Further down the highway, we turn onto a rough dusty track that leads into some forested green hills. We drive to a reserve called Legado das Aguas. After about 20km of dirt road we reach a reserve headquarters which has small rooms and a cafeteria.
View from Legado das Aguas headquarters
After a quick coffee, we set off back the down hill to some roadside forest in search of least pygmy owl. This is a tiny pygmy owl that inhabits the Mata Atlantica (Atlantic rainforest of southeast Brazil). It's not a rare bird, but it's much easier to hear than to see. At the first stop, we are stunned to hear the pygmy owl right away- a pair of two rather long (for a pygmy owl) notes, repeated at intervals. The owl is calling from a steep forested hillside. We wait, hoping that it will descend and that we won't have to scramble up the near cliff of viney tangles. Eventually I catch sight of the tennis-ball sized owl in flight. It takes another half hour of searching before we find the owl, perched below the canopy. The chest of the owl is rusty brown, with white streaks that eventually merge and become a white belly. The back is brown. The tail is quite short, with at least 3 white stripes. The bill and eyes are yellow. The forehead is covered with fine pale spots and is perhaps slightly grayer than the back. What an excellent start to the trip!
On the way back to the park headquarters we stop and check out a beautiful bat falcon. It is perched in a lone pine tree above a dam, waiting for big dragonflies. At sunset we leave the headquarters again, and take the bumpy road back down the hill, across the river and up the far side of the valley. We pull into a clearing. This is a site for Atlantic mottled owl. (The mottled owls of the Atlantic forests of Brazil are considered a likely split from populations in the Amazon basin). We settle in and wait. Almost immediately a big owl flies across the clearing. We spotlight it, and realize that it's a tawny browned owl. This is the more common larger owl of the Atlantic forest. High above a distant mottled owl sings. We hike up an abandoned logging track for about half a kilometer. We get close to the singing owl, and start spotlighting. We play cat and mouse with the owl, as it moves about the forest, singing occasionally. It's a steep slope, and it's not easy following it through the forest. Eventually I glimpse it against the moon lit sky as it flies silently over us. Despite a sustained effort, we don't get any better views, and we eventually decide to try elsewhere. On the drive back to the headquarters, we try at a second spot, and again a tawny-browed owl flies in and perches conspicuously.
We decide to take a break, and eat a late dinner at the headquarters. There I meet two cool Brazilian birders, Thomas Mella and Gabrielle Leche. Both guys are really engaging birders who have great enthusiasm for owls. We return to the forest, driving alongside the reservoir. At the first stop we find a pair of tawny-browed owls. A few stops further on we hear a distant black-banded owl. This is a bird I have seen before, but not often. Reluctant we decide to press on in our quest for Atlantic mottled owls. Eventually we find a singing Atlantic mottled owl. It swoops just a couple of feet from our heads, and perches out on an open branch. We enjoy beautiful views of this fantastic owl. It looks similar to the Amazonian birds that I have seen. It's dark eyed, rich chocolate brown above, tawny below, thickly streaked with dark brown on the chest. This is a new bird for me.
Before we call it a night, we decide to try for black capped screech owl, a species I have seen just once on a prior trip to Brazil. We explore a trail from the headquarters but we hear nothing. I resolve to try again, before dawn.
July 10th. I wake to my alarm an hour before dawn. I strap on my snake guards, and set off to the black-capped screech owl trail. Almost immediately, I hear the long wavering call of the screech-owl from a gully far below the trail. It's a nasty little scramble through some thorny vines to the gully. The owl sounds impossibly close when it reveals itself on the far side of a big leaf just a few feet from my face. I meet Alex for breakfast and happily report my find. Having found our targets, we decide to do a little general birding. The weather is cool, and consequently bird activity is low. We run into a couple of mixed flocks and find a scarce Sao Paulo tyrannulet. We return to the park headquarters for lunch, before departing for Intervales, one of Brazil's most important Atlantic forest reserves.
We spend most of the afternoon driving to Intervales, reaching the reserve late in the afternoon. We check into a grand, but tired looking colonial style lodge. It's late in the afternoon, and the sun on the green hills is just beautiful.
View from the old lodge at Intervales
I take a quick swim in a chilly outdoor pool, then we drive back out of the park to meet up with a local guide, Gerson. Alex very conscientiously supports local guides, by hiring them when operating in their areas. It's well past sunset when we pull up along some roadside secondary forest. We are looking for long-tufted screech owl, which is at the Northeastern limit of it's range. A least pygmy owl sings. We drive down the dusty road to a stand of roadside pines. I hear a distant long-tufted screech, and we quickly follow it down the road. I see it flying between the pines, and soon Alex has spotlighted it. It's a large, brown-eyed screech owl with strong barring below. We hear two songs, a short purring trill and a series of slightly gruff notes. A second bird calls from the far side of a thicket, but remains out of view.
We back track down the road and pull up next to a gate. There we hear a pair of rusty-barred owls. This is a beautiful owl that I had tried to find on my last trip to Brazil at Itatiaia National Park. Their voices are magnificently deep and resonant. Soon, I see one bird in flight. Alex finds a perched bird in an araucaria tree. We get brief but beautiful views of this stout, barrel chested owl with big dark eyes, and gorgeous white and rufous barred chest. We run Gerson home, and stop at a local cafe to celebrate with dinner and a Heineken. While driving back to the lodge we flush a hare (introduced from Portugal). From the balcony we hear a couple for tropical screech owls, and glimpse one in flight. In the distance we hear a couple of rusty-barred owls, but despite our best efforts they remain stubbornly out of sight.
July 11th. I am up well before dawn, and decide to try and get a decent view of a tropical screech owl. I walk around the park-like area around the lodge, and eventually find a tropical screech owl low in a small tree. It's a beautiful red-phase bird. I also flush a couple of pauraques.
Alex and I meet at 630am, as first light breaks over the small forested hills to the East. We drive along the long dusty entrance road back to the highway. We find a bakery, and stop for espresso. It's a long seven hour drive to Persepolis. I discover that Alex shares my love of Rage Against the Machine, so we listen happily to the first two albums. Better still Alex introduces me to Chico Science e Nacao Zumbi, a sort of Brazilian Clash that are just brilliant; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHJB3o0ed0Q As we cross Sao Paulo State, I am struck by how much this part of Brazil is like the United States, being modern, industrial and highly developed. We stop for a buffet lunch, where I grab the best looking vegan options. Mid afternoon we check into a modern hotel. Then we meet our local guide, Wagner in Persepolis, a small market town set in rolling grassy hills, that look surprisingly like California. Wagner had recently found a buff fronted owl nest. This is a bird that I have found in Northern Peru, but the birds that occur on the East of the continent are considered a likely split. We head out of town through cow pastures to a place called Conceicao dos Ouros. We find a roadside pair of burrowing owls along the way.
We pull up next to a large stone building. Wagner shows us a female great-horned owl on a nest in a tree. I soon find the male bird, perched nearby. This is the first great-horned that I have seen East of the Andes in South America. The birds look similar to those in the East of the USA, rather richly colored, with the female bird having rustier-colored cheeks. Wagner tells us that the large building we are standing near used to house slaves. Again I am reminded of the similarities between this place and the USA. It's disturbing to think of the horrors that occurred in that building.
We drive further up the valley as the sun sets. Wagner shows us a church where barn owls live. We peer into the steeple, but can't see any owls.
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We drive a couple kilometers past the lonely church, and park by some open cow pastures. We walk to a line of mostly dead shade trees planted along a long-abandoned track. Alex and I are both surprised when we arrive at the nest hole, it's in a very open location, about 300m from the nearest scrubby woodlot.
We stand around near the nest hole waiting. It's fairly cold, but beautiful out here. Below a ferruginous pygmy owl sings. A couple of tropical screech owls start sing back and forth. Finally a buff fronted owl sings from the woodlot below. Another responds from a little further away. Darkness descends, and a big moon rises. My eyes remain fixed on the nest cavity. Something passes by the hole, but it's impossible to be certain it wasn't a bat. After two hours, I am cold and stiff. Wagner decides to scratch the nest tree. This is an excellent idea, and immediately the female pokes her head out of the cavity, and glares at us! I get good views of this fantastic little owl, before she eventually flies out of the cavity. Wagner assures us better views are in store, we just have to be patient. I am so cold, I lay in the grass and stare into the trees. Eventually the female owl returns and perches right above me. She stares at me from about three meters. It's a shocking and brilliant view. I stare at her for ages. Every time I make a tiny noise she tenses up and stares, looking like she is going to pounce on me! She has incredible yellow eyes. the upper and lower part of the bill are horn-gray, but the middle part (where the mandibles meet) is darker gray. The cheeks are a rich yellow-buff, surrounded by a thin, chocolate-colored facial disc. Like eye-shadow, the feathers extending up and out from the eyes are dusky. The upper-parts are chocolate brown, with a few scattered white spots on the wings. She eventually returns to her hole. The male then sings from a closer perch, and we catch a brief view of him in the torch light.
On the drive back we hear rufous nightjar. We stop at the church, and three barn owls emerge from the steeple! One perches nearby we we get excellent views of it low in a tree. I marvel at it's plumage-I don't think I have seen a barn owl with such perfect feathers. Each is just perfection.
We drive back to Persepolis and stop at a little pizza place for a late dinner and a celebratory beer. It's late when we finally make it back to the hotel.
July 12th. We leave the hotel when it's still dark to go birding, stopping for espresso. Returning to the same road we visited yesterday, we stop at some roadside forest. We check in on the burrowing owls, they are still there. Later we find a second pair a couple of kilometers down the road. We leave Persepolis, and drive over the mountains. At a pass Alex buys a bag of araucaria seeds from a roadside vendor. We descend down to a wide agricultural valley, where we stop to check out a family of three, very tame, burrowing owls. After we stop by Alex's home town, and his wife Olivia joins us for lunch. Olivia stays behind, while we press on to Salesopolis. This is a small hill town, set in the final range of mountains before the Atlantic shore. We stop at a grocery store and buy two case of bananas to feed the tanagers at the next lodge. From town it's just a short drive on a dusty road to Sitio Macuquinho, https://www.sitiomacuquinho.com.br/ a new lodge run by a lovely couple Elvis and Nanda. The lodge is surrounded by a mosaic of second growth Atlantic forest, eucalyptus forest and small marshes. The grounds are full of feeds and dozens of hummingbirds, tanagers and other birds. Elvis explains that he had seen short-browed owl in the grounds of the lodge just a few days ago. Alex tells me that in Southeast Brazil, this is a very special bird. The Amazonian form of spectacled owl is scarce in the cerrado just to the North, and short-browed owl is more regular, but scarce in Bahia and other states to the Northeast. However in Sao Paulo state, Alex explains, this is the first bird detected in a couple of decades.
We spend the afternoon watching the birds around the lodge and eating boiled araucaria seeds. Alex shows me a orange-eyed thornbird in some reeds and we see a black-legged dacnis on the feeder. We spend some time in a hide, and are eventually rewarded with close views of a pair of brown tinamou. As it gets dark, we wait at the end of the lawn, staring at a stand of trees, hoping for the short-browed owl to return. Eventually we depart and start walking around the nearby forest. It's cool and quite windy. Alex explains that on nights like this the owls don't sing. True enough, unlike every other night on the trip, we hear just one distant rusty-barred owl. Eventually it starts to rain, so we decide to quit and resume owling before dawn.
July 13th. We wake early and set out well before dawn in our search for the elusive short-browed owl. It's cool, calm and cloudy, and the forest is silent. We walk around and listen, but find nothing. Eventually we return to the lodge at daybreak and sleep a little more.
Nanda has made us a nice breakfast. Feeling recuperated we set off for some general birding. Near the lodge Alex shows me Bertoni's, dusky-tailed and ochre-rumped antbirds and white-shouldered fire-eye. I keep an eye out for roosting owls, but find none. We spend the rest of the day hanging around the lodge, and looking at Elvis' photos of short-browed owl. We also listen to his sound recordings, which sound different from spectacled owl. The song has a similar structure, but lacks the quality of a vibrating sheet of metal that makes the spectacled' call so distinctive. In the afternoon we visit a nearby marsh in search of the very rare and local Sao Paulo antwren. We hear a couple of antwrens in some distant reed-beds, but don't see any.
Dusk eventually arrives, and we return to our position at the end of the lawn, staring, somewhat forlornly at a stand trees, hoping that a short-browed owl will show up. We eventually wander around the lodge's trails, and then to progressively further locations along a series of dirt roads. We hear two or three rusty-barred owls, a distant Atlantic mottled owl and we flush a roadside occelated poorwill and a couple of beautiful long-trained nightjars.
After everyone goes to bed, I walk a 6km circuit around the lodge. The moon is full and conditions are great. It's beautiful to be out in the forest alone and to move at my own pace. Still, I fail to find anything of interest.
July 14th. I wake well before dawn, and stumble into my boots and out the door. Alex is already waiting for me, and we make our way to our vigil at the end of the lawn. There is no owl today, so we hike around the lodge's trail system. The moon is big, and low in the sky. It's beautiful and calm out. The sky eventually lightens and like vampires, we return to our rooms to sleep.
After breakfast we return to the marsh an this time get to see Sao Paulo antwren. This bird was first described in 2013! We hike along an old logging road and find rough-legged tyrannulet, squamate antbird and spot-breasted antshrike.
After lunch I take a siesta, which really helps as I have been short on sleep for the entire trip, and I want to have energy for tonight-my last chance for the short-browed owl.
At dusk we wait again at the end of the garden for the owl to appear, and again it does not show. In the distance a rusty-barred and tropical screech both sing. We set off on foot and try the surrounding forest, but don't hear anything. A little crestfallen we return for dinner. Nanda has (with great care and kindness) made vegan pizza. After every new vegan dish, she always checks in with me and asks with concern if I liked the food. She's a great cook, and a very kind person. After dinner we set out in the Nissan to the top of the hill above the lodge. At the first stop we find a beautiful rusty-barred. Both the contact call and the song are much higher pitched than the other rusty-barred. We consider perhaps the bird has a genetic deficit that causes the strange call or an infection? Alex drives us up a steep muddy track, where we flush a long-trained nightjar. We park at the top of the hill and walk towards a small community. A tropical screech owl flushes, and thanks to the moon, we are able to locate it perched in a small tree. A little further along the road we hear a second tropical screech. Returning to the Nissan, Alex sees a pool of oil under the car. He crawls under, and finds a major leak. Alex looks really stressed. We jump in and he drives as fast as he can back to the lodge before the motor runs completely out of oil. Alex and Elvis discuss the Nissan. By now it's 10pm, and we decide to call it a night.
July 15th. No yet ready to give up on the short-browed owl, I am up at 3am. I take a 5km walk along some dirt roads a little further from the lodge. I hear three rusty-barred owls. The moon is so bright and the walk is beautiful. It feels good just to be here, even if I haven't found my big bad owl.
I hike quickly back over the ridge to the lodge in order to meet Alex at 5am for our final owl prowl. We return to the hill where we found the rusty barred yesterday. In the distance a tropical screech sings. We reach a clearcut, where the road starts to descend. To the East the sky turns red, as the night bleeds into dawn. We linger at this beautiful place for several minutes, not quite ready to concede defeat, but unwilling to hike down the hill into the clearcut. Alex calls out, "that's it", just behind us a short-browed owl sings. Almost immediately I see the big owl, perched low in a scrappy tree. We turn on the lights. Fuck! It really is a short-browed. We give each other a big hug, then settle in to watch the owl. It's eyes are golden, the bill heavy and horn colored. A grayish white cross forms around the bill, two lines, extending like short eye brows over the eye, and two radiating out below the eyes, like a mustache. The rest of the head is blackish. The "eye brows" are shorter and thinner than those of the spectacled owl. The upper part of the chest is blackish, and the rest of the underparts are a rich ochraceous. The blackish tail has about ten gray bars. Similarly the dark flight feathers are barred with gray. The rest of the upper-parts are blackish with a few light spots. When the owl turns it's head, it's neck feathers ruffle, and we can see that they have a lighter brown base, and darker edge. The owl sings for a minute, while staring intently at the nearby rusty-barred owl. (Elvis has told us that the short-browed had predated on a juvenile rusty-barred). It flies a short distance, but perches again in the open, and we enjoy fantastic views.
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We can't believe our luck. Dawn spreads across the sky and both owls soon fall silent. I have a flight to catch today. We found it literally in the last ten minutes of darkness during our 3 day quest. Happily we walk back to the lodge, gushing about the owl. It's a lifer for Alex. Back at the lodge, I am way too excited to sleep, and replay the encounter over and over in my mind's eye.
When I tell Elvis about our sighting, he tells me we found the owl, because last night the owl visited him in a dream. Nanda and Elvis are both really enthusiastic about our sighting.
After breakfast we abandon the Nissan, and borrow Elvis and Nanda's FIAT. Alex runs me to the airport at Sao Paulo. Repeated he warns me to be very careful at Belem. The security situation there isn't so good. We say goodbye at the airport. I have really enjoyed owling with Alex, and hope that I get a chance to meet him again.
It's a fairly long, (3 1/2 hour) uneventful flight to Belem on LATAM. I don't have a lot of site information, and Alex's warnings have me a little spooked. I pick up a rental car at the airport. Thankfully, I am able to use my phone to navigate out of Belem, which is pretty intense during rush hour and a big thunderstorm. Thousands of small motorbikes weave in and out of traffic. Belem feels like all the Amazonian cities I have visited, youthful, vibrant and noisy. Thankfully the rain does not last long. I stop at a small roadside eatery. The place is full of police drinking beer. I don't know whether to feel safe or unsafe around them, so I ignore them completely. At 8pm, I reach my destination, Sao Barbara do Para. I search for a good area to owl, that's quiet and away from people. I park the rental car next to a church, and take a gated logging track into the forest. It's incredibly humid out of the car. And loud; with frogs and insects all singing. My quest here is the Belem form of the tawny-bellied screech owl. Sidnei Dantas had published a paper earlier in the year suggesting a major revision the the tawny-bellied/black-capped screech owl complex. Tanwy-bellieds occurring East and South of Belem being proposed as a unique species.
I head off down the forest track, relieved it does not pass any houses. Surprisingly soon, I hear my first tawny-bellied screech owl, singing a long purring trill. The song has highly ventriloquial qualities, and the owl is clearly singing from high in the trees. I creep around the forest trying to spotlight the owl, while keeping an eye out for snakes. The owl seems indifferent to my efforts, and only moves a couple of times despite my light. At one point I get completely disorientated and abandon looking for the owl. With no moon or city lights to orientate myself, I panic for a minute. I then remember to get my phone, and use the compass on the phone. That way I can at least walk in a consistent direction. With great relief I emerge from the forest onto the track. I decide to ditch this owl, even though it's been singing for 90 minutes, and try for another one. I walk for a few kilometers through white sand and red clay forest. Several times to track is covered by shallow pools of water, but each time, I am able to skirt by them and continue on. I don't see much, just a pauraque. Still it's a beautiful warm night, with a big moon over the palms. I am surprised not to hear more owls, only a distant crested owl from deep in the forest. I decide to return to the original tawny-bellied screech owl. When arrive, it's still singing. This time I decide to focus on seeing the bird as it flies over the track. After a tough 45 minutes, I do catch sight of the owl as it flies across a gap in the canopy. It's after midnight, and I have been up since 3am, so I decide to call it a night. I drive to a modest hotel with secure parking by the side of the highway and grab a couple of beers to celebrate.
July 16th Reluctantly I rouse myself at first light. After a quick breakfast I head out to the forest. I don't have any special birding goals left, but I am reluctant to leave for the airport without returning to the forest. I walk along a red clay road, through brilliant green forest. I search for ferruginous pygmy-owl. I don't find any owls, but I do pass a piggery. A mass of black vultures stand in the grass, just beyond the pigs. Something has died and the smell is over powering. The whole place is fantastic, the hugeness of the forest, the humidity, the power of the sun, the hulking vultures that have just feasted and can barely fly. With regret I return to the rental car, and start my long journey home.
Birding like this negatively impacts global climate change. To help mitigate impacts you may want to consider taking action. Here is one place you can do this https://marketplace.goldstandard.org/
