Brazil: Southern Pantanal Birding & Wildlife Spectacular

Jaguar © Erik Bruhnke

A tour to the southern Pantanal region of Brazil promises easy birding and wildlife viewing, with good chances for spectacular species such as Jabiru, Greater Rhea, Hyacinth Macaw, Jaguar, Giant Otter, Giant Anteater, and much more.

For many years, our tours to the famed Pantanal region of southern Brazil have brought exposure to some of the world’s greatest birding and wildlife spectacles. Our Pantanal tours have traditionally operated in the north of that vast region. Thanks to our special relationship with Dr. Charles Munn and his company SouthWild, we have recently discovered the richness of the southern Pantanal, an area only now coming to light for non-Brazilians as an important ecotourism destination. Compared to the north, the south offers similar birds and wildlife, but key differences exist, and this brand-new tour to the southern Pantanal makes for an equally outstanding nature-based getaway—a wonderful choice for both first-time and returning visitors alike.

Within the seasonally flooded basin of the Paraguay River, the expansive lowlands of the Pantanal are home to countless numbers of waterbirds, raptors, and other wildlife. The abundance and diversity of large mammals and birds are reminiscent of the great wildlife spectacles of Africa.

By bus, boat, and on foot, we will explore the diversity of habitats that together comprise the world’s largest tropical wetland ecosystem. Mammal viewing is of high importance, with Giant Otter, Giant Anteater, Brazilian Tapir, Black-and-gold Howler Monkey, and Jaguar—South America’s greatest predator—topping the list, but we will also anticipate encounters with some of the continent’s most remarkable birds including Greater Rhea, Bare-faced Curassow, Red-legged Seriema, Jabiru, Southern Screamer, the incomparable Hyacinth Macaw, and Toco Toucan, in addition to many other species.

A central feature of this trip is a five-night stay at the Pantanal Jungle Lodge, on the banks of the Miranda River. Boat excursions on the river will produce a superb variety of wildlife. Birds should be plentiful, with Jabiru, herons, ibis, several species of kingfishers, and a diversity of guans, pigeons, toucans, parrots, woodpeckers, and orioles all likely. Here too are herds of grazing Capybara, riverbanks lined with Yacaré Caiman, and Black-and-gold Howler Monkeys lounging in the treetops.

We’ll then spend three nights in cerrado country in the community of Bonito. Here, we’ll seek a fresh suite of birds and mammals against the backdrop of the Bodoquena Mountains. Amid forested sinkholes, rolling grasslands, lush gallery forest, and crystal-clear rivers, we may find regional prizes such as Long-winged Harrier, Laughing and Aplomado falcons, King Vulture, flocks of Red-and-green Macaws, Blaze-winged Parakeet, Campo Flicker, Crimson-crested Woodpecker, Amazonian Motmot, Green-backed Trogon, and Great Rufous Woodcreeper. All the while we will be on the lookout for large mammals including Giant Anteater, Brazilian Tapir, Pampas Deer, Brown Brocket Deer, and Brown Capuchin. We will also present an optional opportunity to snorkel in a shallow, crystal-clear spring in the company of beautiful tropical fish.

Good accommodations and good food throughout; easy terrain; birding along lightly traveled gravel roads or on good, flat trails; full mornings of birding with afternoon breaks on most days; boat trips on all days in the Pantanal to seek Jaguars and birds; generally warm to hot, dry climate; some rain possible.

Hyacinth Macaw © Andrew Whittaker