It’s a moist mountain range about 180 Km south of the city of Fortaleza. The altitude in the area is over 800m from the sea level. These moist areas are known in the Brazilian literature as ‘brejos’ or ‘brejos de altitude’. Brejos receive orographic rains because of their altitude and situation relative to the prevailing moisture-laden winds, and are clad in humid forests within areas facing the winds. These grade into semi-deciduous forest and eventually into dry, xeric caatingas in lower areas. These areas are a refuge for many forest birds that are isolated from their similar in the Amazonia and Atlantic Forest, and this natural isolation is acting in the speciation of some forest birds, here is the habitat of many subspecies that are in split process and also the shelter of brejo’s endemics species such as the Grey-breasted Parakeet, Buff-breasted Tody-Tyrant, the local forms of Rufous-breasted Leastosser, Rufous Gnateater, Lesser Woodcreeper, Variable Antshrike, Gould’s Toucanet, Spot-winged Wood-Quail, Red-necked Tanager, Slender-footed Tyrannulet, Ochraceous Piculet, Short-tailed Antthrush and others.

It’s a plateau situated in the south of the state of Ceará. The region is very rich in birds due the diversity of the habitats, the vegetation in the top of the plateau is a mixed of Moist Forest (near the slopes), Cerrado and Caatinga. In the foothills of the slopes are the most important water resources of the Region, with more than 300 springs, along these slopes there is an exuberant moist forest that is the only habitat in the world for the Critically Endangered and recently described to science (just in 1998!), the gorgeous Araripe Manakin. In the dry vegetation of the top of the plateau we will also find many endemics such as the bizarre Great Xenops, Silvery-cheeked Antshrike, Red-shouldered Spinetail, Caatinga Antshrike, Tawny Piculet, the secretive White-browed Antpitta, the Caatinga Antwren, with fortune, the White-browed Guan and many others. Note: In the route between Serra de Baturité and Chapada do Araripe there is a site to the endemic Pygmy Nightjar, here we will see the bird in the diurnal roost. According to the client requirements and availability of time, we can also go to specific areas in the state to the Little Wood-Rail, Hooded Gnateater and Moustached Woodcreeper – the last one only with a 4x4 car.

This is one of the best fragment of Atlantic Forest the remains in the state of Pernambuco. It’s part of the “Serra-do-Urubu” Mountain Range, one of the areas elected as Extremely Important to the Biodiversity by the Brazilian Ministry of Environment. This is the only site with records of the Alagoas-foliage Gleaner outside Murici Ecological Station; the others “Murici endemics” are also here (Alagoas Tyrannulet, Alagoas Antwren, Orange-bellied Antwren) and more specialties are possible, such as the Seven-colored Tanager, Long-tailed Woodnymph Golden-tailed Parrotlet, Willis’ Antbird, Opal-rumped Tanager, Pinto’s Spinetail and others.

Two recent discoveries turned those areas obligatory in the Birdwatching routes in Northeast. The Pernambuco Pygmy-Owl described in 2002 and the rediscovery of the White-collared Kite. The first one was seen only one time after the formal description but is always a challenge try to find this “ghost” and the Kite is been regularly seen by our groups since the rediscovery ( than 50% of the visits). Besides those rarities we also have the either rare Fobes’ Blackbird and the Yellow-faced Siskin, the Smoky-fronted Tody-Flycatcher, Sooty Grassquit, Red-showered Macaw and new chances to the Seven-colored Tanager, Pinto’s Spinetail, Willis’ Antbird and others.

Welcome to one of the most exciting moments of the trip, the encounter with the Lear’s Macaw!!! Those amazing birds only occurs in these region, the “Raso da Catarina”. Depending of the time of the year and number of participants we can go to one of the rousting sites and see during the sunrise more than 200 macaws leaving the place (see video LINK), this was (and still being one of my biggest emotions as a birder), we also can go watch the birds in their feeding areas. But the macaws are not the only target here, we will also look for the endangered Pectoral Antwren, the strange Scarlet-throated Tanager, the bizarre Red-legged Seriema, Blue-crowned Parakeets and others Caatinga specialties.

Here we will stay in a excellent accommodation inside the Reserve, birds are everywhere!! Our target is the restricted Pink-legged Graveteiro, that uses to nest close to our rooms. Other birds are the Plumbeus Antvireo, Bahia Tyrannulet, Blue Manakin, Spot-backed Antshrike, Spot-billed Toucanet, Variegated Antpitta, Black-Hawk Eagle, Sombre Hummingbird, Brazilian Ruby, etc.

One of the famous beaches in the southern coastal Bahia, but this is not our aim; we’re birding in the lowlands Atlantic forest near the town, here is one of the best places to the rare Banded and White-winged Cotingas. The Hooked-billed Hermit and the Red-browed Parrot are also around, and it’s one of the last know sites of the Harpy Eagle in NE Brazil!! Sooretama Slaty-Antshrike, Bahia Antwren, Band-tailed Antwren will be other birds we will look for.