Espírito Santo/Minas Gerais Tour - September

Fifteen days up and down mountain ranges, from the Atlantic coast of Espírito Santo to the high grasslands of Minas Gerais, chasing three of the rarest birds on Earth. We begin in the coastal lowland forests of Linhares and Sooretama, last stronghold of the Red-billed Curassow, the world's rarest cracid. Climbing into the mountains of Santa Teresa, hummingbird feeders blur with Frilled Coquettes and Brazilian Rubies, before Vargem Alta brings the holy grail: the Cherry-throated Tanager, a bird down to perhaps twenty individuals on the planet. From the montane forests of Caparaó and Caraça to the campo rupestre of Serra do Cipó, we ride an altitudinal gradient from sea level to nearly 2,800 metres, finishing in the cerrado grasslands of Serra da Canastra, home of the Brazilian Merganser, one of the rarest waterfowl alive. A journey of gradients, endemism, and birds the world is fighting to keep.