The state of Amazonia is the largest (Germany could fit inside it 4 times as well one Greece) in Brazil and holds the largest block of Amazonian rainforest in the country. We flew to Manaus where we stayed for a couple of nights.
Manaus is a large city with a bustling port which is strategic for shipping up both the Negro and Solimoes rivers and east along the main Amazon. Just from our accommodation I could identify many new birds including; blue-gray tanager, grayish saltator, fork-tailed palm swift and common ground dove.
We arranged an excursion to the Parque do Mindu, which is a small (33hectare) park found in a residential area of the city. There are many trails that can be walked which are easy and safe, some are even elevated to give a unique view of the forest from the understory level. The park is very urbanised but does protect reasonable quality secondary forest.
The main reason we visited was to look for the pied-bare faced tamarin and red-rumped agouti.
The critically endangered tamarins are restricted to the area around Manaus district and as many as 100 are thought to live within the park. Unfortunately we could not find any during our time here, but some of the trails were closed to visitors. We did find 4 red-rumped agoutis and because they have become used to people walking the trails we could approach quite close.
Red-rumped agouti
We walked out to the river that passes through the forest which has sadly become very polluted as it passes through a favela near its source. I counted 32 spectacled caiman along one small stretch including some large individuals as well several striated herons, snowy egrets and a ringed kingfisher.
Spectacled caiman
We also learnt from a local guide about the tree species and many of the uses and medicines that derive from the flora of the Amazon forest.
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