One night was particularly productive, when I met up with a member of the Rio bird club, Daniel who was visiting the reserve with some friends keen on owls. We first went to look for tawny-browed owl in an urban area in the nearby town of Guapimirim, where we soon found one, but had no luck with the long tailed potoo.
Tawny-browed owl
Later on the drive back we found an obliging pair of tropical screech owl on the entrance track to REGUA. They appear to be currently frequenting the area near to the first farm house in the plantation of guava.
Tropical screech owl
The next morning we had a superb view of a roosting black-banded owl in the forest fragment partly owned by REGUA, and later on in the month I found one in the lodge garden at night, probably attracted to the banana feeders where they are rodents coming to feed. Adilei told me this was the first record for lodge garden of this species and the only other nearby known site is on the 4x4 trail, so this could hopefully be a new individual moving into the area.
Black-banded owl
There are also 3 different ferruginous pygmy owls resident in the lodge vicinity including a very vocal male that roosts in the tall trees bordering the track between the conservation centre and football pitch.
Ferruginous pygmy owls
I have also been out with Adilei and Leonardo on occasions with guests looking for the endemic black-capped screech which is known to occur in the forest fragment too, unfortunately I never managed a sighting of this species, but did hear it calling at night.
Finally I have had some very good sightings of barn owl in the pastureland near to REGUA land at night and in the fields at one of the giant snipe sites.
On the drive out of the reserve one morning I saw this roost of guira cuckoos, which was rather spectacular. They had huddled together over night to keep warm, behaviour commoner in smaller passerines but this social species is well known for this behaviour.
Roosting guira cuckoos.
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