White-crested Guan
I'm finally back in Brussels again after an exhausting 26-hour journey from Parauapebas, Pará. It involved travelling by car, a 1.5 hour ferry ride along the Acará and Guamá rivers, two flights, train and bus! During my four days in and around the Serra dos Carajás, I managed to see another 22 new species for my list, one of which is a new species entirely, as it is still undescribed and currently known as Amazonian Spinetail. There were also five subspecies which are likely to be split in the near future, including Santarém Parakeet, which was noticeably different from the Madeira Parakeets at Cristalino. We had the most amazing guide, Filho Manfredini, who got us on a singing Snethlage's Antpitta on our first afternoon, although my first lifer of the trip were three ridiculously heavy-looking Horned Screamers along the road. Lots of goodies followed and, on our one day without Filho, I even managed to find Sharpbill, Snethlage's Gnateater and Ruddy Spinetail by myself, but by far the highlight for me was seeing and especially hearing White Bellbirds singing. This meant a horrible drive up through a working mine into the upper parts of the Carajás National Forest but, as the car ground to a halt, the driver and our guide having heard something I'd missed in the back seat, and we all got out, I couldn't believe my ears. There was the loudest and weirdest birdsong I've ever heard coming from atop a dead tree right alongside the road. I even managed to get a short clip of it singing. A Yellow-browed Sparrow giving its dry, buzzy song as we waited for the ferry back to Belém was my 36th lifer from my seventh summer in the Amazon and my 2350th bird in the world!
