We're back from ten days in Brazil, traveling in Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. My wife and an old friend were more interested in plants and horticulture than birds, but I planned the itinerary to get some birding in. We flew to Porto Alegre, rented a car and drove down to Taim, then to Joinville by way of Santana da Boa Vista, Sao Francisco da Paula and Aparados NP, and flew home from Florianopolis last Sunday.
We took a GPS loaded with maps of Brazil. It was very nice to have, particularly to find banks, but it did sort of lead us astray a couple times. On the way to Sao Francisco da Paulo from Porto Alegre, it took us on a shortcut through town and up an unpaved road when we should have taken a highway, and it sent us on a path that included 60 Km of rough unpaved roads on a day we had a 7 hour drive already. The last two hours of that day was on the freeway from Florianopolis to Joinville, racing along in the rain to arrive at about 11:00 PM, well past my bedtime. But the birding was good on the rough road, and we added several birds to the list by going that way, including Spotted Nothura and Diademed Tanager, so I can't complain.
I'll have to add more later.
I'll be interested to hear about what you've seen from a part of Brazil that's less frequently visited by birders.
We did not have much time the first day, arriving in Porto Alegre mid-afternoon, following an overnight flight. After picking up the little rented Fiat, hooking up the GPS, we headed straight out of town, planning to spend the night somewhere around Pelotas, some 3 or 4 hours south.
The highway heads out through vast birdy rice fields. The traffic was furious at times, and the shoulders usually narrow, but we managed to pull off at several locations to tick a few life birds, including Maguari Storks, Southern Screamers, Long-winged Harriers, and Red-crested Cardinals (near life birds, having seen them in Hawaii). It would have been well to look over these fields more thoroughly, but the day wasn't going to last forever, so we kept on, for the most part.
We pulled into São Lourenço da Sul, north of Pelotas, and found a nice hotel on the beach as it got dark.
Attached are some images taken en route.