THE ATLANTIC RAINFOREST
The Atlantic rainforest is amazing. You should definitely come to Brazil and bird the Atlantic rainforest. Unfortunately this section of our website is not yet finished, but come back soon and we'll dazzle you with a bit of what the Mata Atlantica has to offer!
Suggested Tour Itineraries
The Atlantic rainforests of east and south-east Brazil are replete with enticing destinations, including some of the top birding locales in all of South America. We offer below two excellent introductory tours designed for the traveler who has either just one or two weeks to travel, or who would like to tack visits to the best sites in south-east Brazil on to one of our offerings in the Amazon or elsewhere in Brazil. The third itinerary is our south Brazil extravaganza, a favourite itinerary which covers the best Atlantic forest, upland grasslands, and vast marshes of southern Brazil in some of the country's most enjoyable birding areas.
Don't forget to explore the interactive birding map for the Atlantic forest at the bottom of this page if you'd like to learn about lesser known sites or to put together a customized itinerary with our assistance.
The Best of Southeast Brazil (17 days)
This tour visits the crown jewels of Brazil's Mata Atlantica and will put some of the most spectacular, threatened endemic birds you can imagine in front of you. Southeast Brazil is simply a must-visit region for any traveling birder, and this comprehensive itinerary visits all of the best sites in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and together with our optional extension to Espírito Santo, covers virtually all of the Atlantic forest endemics which regularly occur in the south-east. Our itinerary begins in the Serra do Mar south of São Paulo, where we visit Intervales State Park and Trilha dos Tucanos in one of the best remaining blocks of montane Atlantic rain forest in the country. A short visit to the coastal restinga to look for three extremely range-restricted endemics completes our visit to the southern part of São Paulo state before we return north to visit the highland resort town of Campos do Jordão and the lowland forests around the beach resort of Ubatuba. From there we cross into Rio de Janeiro state to visit Perequê for the Critically Endangered Black-hooded Antwren en route to Itatiaia National Park, the oldest park in Brazil and one of the finest sites in the region. We also suggest spending two nights at the welcoming Fazenda Bacury in the interior of São Paulo state, where we can visit the extensive Tanquã marshes and bird in one of the last remaining tracts of planalto Atlantic forest to look for Violaceous Quail-Dove and the impressive Southern Muriqui, one of South America's largest and most endangered primates.