After a short flight up to Belo Horizonte we will drive westwards to the remote Serra da Canastra for a four night stay. Time permitting we will begin our exploration of this fine area in the aftgernoon. The Serra da Canastra National Park is 71,525 hectares and protects the source of the Rio São Francisco. Recently the Serra da Babalonia has been added to this protected area, hugely extending the protected area.

The Serra da Canastra is essentially a plateau surrounded by cliffs that tower over the surrounding rural landscape of Minas Gerais. It protects a variety scrubby and grassland habitats known as cerrado and campo. Although much of the undulating terrain is largely treeless it is crossed by strips of gallery forest and woody thickets. The grasslands hold Greater Rhea, the bizarre Giant Anteater and Maned Wolf. In areas of taller grasses the odd looking Cock-tailed Tyrant may be seen asserting their territories together with Sharp-tailed Tyrant and other tall grass species. We shall also visit grasslands of differing structure in search of Ochre-breasted Pipit and Campo Miner. The latter dropping out of the sky, as if from nowhere, as soon as an area is burnt. The rocky rivers that cross the plateau are the haunt of the rare Brazilian Merganser and we shall devote much of our time here to finding this species.

Along the rivers and streams we should also find Sharp-tailed Streamcreepers and in dense thickets throughout the area we may find the localised Brasilia Tapaculo and White-striped Warbler. The gallery forest that line the wider stretches of the rivers hold many birds of the atlantic forests. Amongst these we shall be searching for Chestnut-headed Tanager, Southern Bristle-Tyrant and Golden-capped Parakeet. Amongst the many other species we shall search for throughout the park are Lesser and Spotted Nothura, Red-winged Tinamou, Reddish-bellied Parakeets, Scaly-headed Parrot, Scissor-tailed Nightjar, Ashy-tailed Swift, Planalto Hermit, Swallow-tailed Hummingbird, White-vented Violetear, Stripe-breasted Starthroat, Amethyst Woodstar, Surucua Trogon, Red-breasted Toucan, Campo Flicker, Green-barred and Blond-crested Woodpeckers, Planalto and Narrow-billed Woodcreepers, Firewood-gatherer, Variable and Rufous-winged Antshrikes, White-shouldered Fire-eye, Collared Crescentchest, Plain-crested and Highland Elaenias, Sooty and White-crested Tyrannulets, Grey-hooded and Euler’s Flycatchers, Yellow-lored Tody-Flycatcher, Masked Water-Tyrant, Streamer-tailed Tyrant, Yellow-browed Tyrant, Rufous Casiornis, Crested and Velvety Black-Tyrants, Red-ruffed Fruitcrow, Curl-crested Jay, Grey-eyed Greenlet, Hellmayr’s Pipit, Yellow-rumped Marshbird, Cinnamon, White-rumped, Rufous-headeded and Gilt-edged Tanagers, Great Pampa-Finch, Stripe-tailed Yellow-Finch, Wedge-tailed Grass-Finch, Capped Seedeater, Pileated-Finch, Black-masked Finch, Green-winged and Black-throated Saltators.