The last couple of months have been unusually hot and dry here at REGUA with very little rain so far this spring. As a result, bird activity has been much lower than normal (although things are now improving), but there’s been some very interesting birds recorded, including two new bird species for the reserve list.

On 2 September, Daniel Mello had just seen a Great Black-Hawk Buteogallus urubitinga at the wetland (itself a rare bird here), when this Black-collared Hawk Busarellus nigricollis flew low over the wetland! This is very rare species in Rio de Janeiro state and are much more common in the drier interior such as in the Pantanal. Over the following few days there were further reports of this, or perhaps another bird. For more of Daniel’s photography, please visit his excellent blog.

Then on 18 September, our bird guide Leonardo was out with some guests on the Wetland Trail when he discovered a Brown-crested Flycatcher Myiarchus tyrannulus, another species more frequently found in the drier interior of Brazil.

This brings the REGUA bird list up to an incredible 464 species!