This is the most complete journey we offer through Northeast Brazil — a deep, carefully crafted expedition across some of the most diverse, challenging, and rewarding birding regions in the country. Over 25 days, we cross six states, moving through Atlantic Forest, Caatinga, Cerrado, campo rupestre, coastal lowlands, and isolated forest refuges that hold some of the rarest birds on the planet.
The tour begins in the transition zones of Maranhão and Piauí, where the legendary Kaempfer’s Woodpecker still survives, and gradually unfolds through a string of iconic sites: humid forest “islands” like Guaramiranga, dramatic Caatinga landscapes in Quixadá and Canudos, the global stronghold of Lear’s Macaw, and the extraordinary Chapada do Araripe — the only place on Earth to see the Araripe Manakin.
From there, we enter the most threatened portion of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest: the Pernambuco Center of Endemism. Here, fragments like Serra do Urubu shelter an astonishing concentration of globally endangered species, including Seven-colored Tanager, Orange-bellied Antwren, Alagoas Tyrannulet, Willis’s Antbird, and the dazzling Long-tailed Woodnymph. It’s one of the most intense and meaningful sections of the journey, where birding and conservation are inseparable.
As the route continues south into Bahia, the scenery and avifauna shift once again. Chapada Diamantina brings wide-open landscapes and highland endemics like Hooded Visorbearer and Diamantina Tapaculo, while Boa Nova, Serra Bonita, Serra das Lontras, and the lowland forests of Itacaré represent the very best of Atlantic Forest birding — from vine forests and hummingbird gardens to some of the last refuges of species like Slender Antbird, Banded Cotinga, Boa Nova Tapaculo, and Bahia Tapaculo.
This is not a rushed checklist tour. It’s a demanding, rewarding expedition designed for birders who want to understand Northeast Brazil in depth — its birds, its landscapes, and the people and projects working to keep these places alive. If there is such a thing as a “once-in-a-lifetime” birding journey in Brazil, this is it.