REGUA, Atlantic Forest, Brazil: 4 November

Spent the morning birding the Casa Anibal Trail, which leads through lowland humid forest up to 350 metres. Things are still very quiet but we managed to find some good birds, the highlight being a Yellow-billed Cuckoo that appeared briefly before moving off into the forest. This is only the second record for the reserve and a REGUA tick for me. Also seen were 1 Squirrel Cuckoo, 2 Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, 1 Surucua Trogon, 2 Crescent-chested Puffbird, 2 Channel-billed Toucan, a Spot-billed Toucanet, a pair each of Yellow-fronted Woodpecker and Sooretama Slaty Antshrike, 1 Spot-breasted Antvireo, 1 White-flanked Antwren, 4 Unicoloured Antwren, 2 Rufous-winged Antwren, 2 Scaled Antbird (photo 1), 1 White-eyed Foliage-gleaner, 1 Ochre-bellied Flycatcher, 2 Grey-hooded Flycatcher, 1 Eye-ringed Tody-Tyrant, 1 Euler's Flycatcher, 1 Fork-tailed Flycatcher, 1 Moustached Wren, a Uniform Finch and 2 Chestnut-bellied Euphonia.

Scaled Antbird is the only completely black and white Drymophila antbird. A
lowland species, found in good numbers in the lower parts of the reserve.

We also witnessed a spider wasp successfully capture, sting and paralyse a tarantula. Spider wasps lay an egg inside the spider, which on hatching, eats the spider while keeping it alive for as long as possible. I've seen spider wasps many times before but never seen one actually attacking a spider. The tarantula was overpowered surprisingly quickly.

Spider wasp fighting a taratula. The spider was easily overpowered.

Arriving back at the lodge we had brief views of a female Frilled Coquette in the garden (only the second record for the lodge garden), a Rufous-thighed Kite (photo 3), 1 Channel-billed Toucan and several Argentine black and white Tegu sunbathing around the pool (photo 4). An afternoon look at the wetland produced a few notables including a flyover Toco Toucan (a rare bird at REGUA), 2 Rufous-sided Crake, a Blackish Rail, 1 Blue-winged Parrotlet and several White-chinned Sapphire (photo 5).

This Rufous-thighed Kite is hunting insects each evening around the lodge.

Argentine black and white Tegu Tupinambis merianae

White-chinned Sapphire is a lowland species and is now regular at the
lodge feeders.

Night-birding this evening on agricultural land around the nearby village of Areal produced 3-4 Giant Snipe (photo 6) and 2 Barn Owl.

REGUA must be the best place to get up close and personal views of this difficult
nocturnal species. This bird showed down to 3 metres.