José Silvério chose the region of the Itatiaia National Park and Serra da Bocaina for his first bird photography trip after the start of the pandemic. He came with his wife Aninha and friend Celi Aurora. Unfortunately, the airline changed the flight arrival time at Santos Dumont airport to 3:00 pm, making it impossible to start the tour on the day of arrival. On the second day, we went to the upper part of the Itatiaia National Park, where they could see and photograph many birds, especially the Black-and-gold Cotinga (Lipaugus ater) which gave the expedition its name. We wait until nightfall to photograph the Rusty-barred Owl ( Strix hylophila ). On the second day we went to Serra da Bocaina, a mountain range that is part of the Serra do Mar mountain range. There the main objective was the Speckle-breasted Antpitta (Cryptopezus nattereri), which once again collaborated and paraded right in front of the intergrandes of the group. At night we still got good pictures of the Mottled Owl ( Strix virgata ). On the third day our destination was Penedo to photograph the Atlantic Royal Flycatcher (Onychorhynchus swainsoni) and soon after we went to Itatiaia National Park, the rain started in the late morning, but we still managed to photograph some new birds. On the fourth and last day of the expedition, we covered some trails in the Itatiaia National Park in search of several birds, including the papo branco (Biatas nigropectus) who also collaborated for photos. We still had lunch in the park and then returned to Serra da Bocaina. At the end of the day and the expedition, the bird photographed was the Ocellated Poorwill (Nyctiphrynus ocellatus). On the 28th in the morning I took the group back to Santos Dumont airport in Rio de Janeiro. The balance was very positive for all members of the group.
Black-and-gold Cotinga
