After reaching the dizzying heights yesterday of seeing a bird only discovered five years ago, of having a Rufous-sided Crake walk over my foot (well, almost), and seeing a stack of life birds, a visit to Ibirapuera Park, one of Sao Paulo’s busiest public parks on an Easter Sunday (its 1.5 million square meters apparently receives up to 150 thousand visitors on normal weekends!) was never going to be quite as memorable or thrilling. But - if you’re a birder you’re a birder, and if there are birds to be seen then a birder will want to see them.

Local birders like Rick Simpson, an ex-pat birder who guided me yesterday, would probably have taken a look out of the window at the low cloud and the dull light, thought about the dubious pleasure of trying to vie with every family in Sao Paulo for space on the footpaths that cut through Ibirapuera whilst trying to see birds he gets in his own backyard, and rolled over and gone back to sleep. Understandably so. but if you live in the UK and don’t get to Brazil very often (and in the current economic climate may never get there again) the enticement is strong and real - even if you have got a ten hour flight back home later that afternoon.

“Mummy, are those Black Swans tickable?” “No, my darling they’re not wild birds…” “That’s not fair - I WANT to tick them…” Stamps foot, yells, etc etc

As it turned out, I’m very glad I made the effort. If you’re staying in downtown Sao Paulo and find yourself within a taxi ride of the Park (and in a city the size of a small country that’s not guaranteed by any means) it’s well worth visiting. Much like, say, New York’s Central Park (with which it’s often compared) or Mexico City’s Chapultepec, Ibirapuera is a hugely coveted open space in a crowded city that fills shortly after daybreak with strolling couples, joggers, and anyone looking to replace concrete underfoot and high-rise buildings overhead with grass and trees - but also like those places it’s a great area to see common resident birds that you probably didn’t stop to look at the day before when you’d paid a guide to get you around to as many birds in the shortest time possible…

Whilst Ibirapuera (I’m fairly sure I’m right in saying) is not going to attract migrants the same way that Central Park does - it’s not on a major Flyway and is too far south to get huge numbers of Nearctic passerines most of which don’t get much further than Meso-America - it does provide good, close views of a some pretty exciting species (if, like me, you live in the UK and don’t get Great Kiskadees, Picazuro Pigeons, and Rufous-bellied Thrushes in your garden etc etc).

Great Kiskadee Pitangus sulphuratus: common and very vocal throughout the park

Picazuro Pigeon Columba picazuro

Rufous-bellied Thrush Turdus rufiventris:
THE common thrush throughout the region

One visit to a Park does not an expert make of course, but I have a feeling that if it hadn’t been a Public Holiday and if the sun had been shining I’d have seen a lot more. I’ll add a Day List below when I get a chance: whilst it’s not going to make any hardcore world twitchers drop everything to phone their travel agents I enjoyed myself. Scanning through flocks (and I mean flocks) of Rufous-bellied and Pale-breasted Thrushes, while Southern Lapwings walk around in the background, Plain Parakeets tear through the sky above, and you almost have to watch where you tread because the Black Vultures and the Rufous Horneros are so habituated to people that they just don’t seem to notice you watching them is not a bad way to spend a few hours.

Black Vulture Coragyps atratus:
small flocks sit around the park like domesticated ducks - very odd at first…

Pale-breasted Thrush Turdus leucomelas

Red-cowled Cardinal Paroaria dominicana:
derived from escapes here, but gorgeous nonetheless

Rufous Hornero Furnarius rufus:
one of the ovenbirds, this species builds clay nests shaped like little ovens on poles, trees, and gate posts…

Neither is picking out the odd White-lined or a Swallow Tanager from amongst the more common Sayaca Tanagers, or watching a Masked Water-tyrant flick along the edge of one of the Park’s many lakes come to that. A softly whistling Rufous-browed Pepper-shrike has got be worth anyone getting out of bed for. Who’s going to turn down a pair of Red-cowled Cardinals even if they are feral birds? Not me, that’s for sure. And, okay, Rufous-collared Sparrows are common throughout South America, but like the Saffron Finches I found or the Southern House Wren singing from a small tree or the Tropical Kingbirds, you still have to go a long way from (my) home to see them.

What I did find slightly disappointing were the lack of hummingbirds and flycatchers. I’m guessing that there must be hummingbirds in the Park - I did see one Swallow-tailed Hummingbird which would suggest I’m right - but that the gloomy weather had them conserving energy and holed up somewhere. Whilst I was happy not to be assaulted by the mosquitoes (as I had been the day before in Biritiba-Mirim once the early morning fog burned off) I’m pretty sure that sunshine and warmth would have brought out a few tyrannulets or elaenias from wherever they were sitting, but I’m experienced enough now to be more sanguine than I once was: I’m often only in a place for a day and the weather won’t be perfect every time. It’s just not going to happen, so make the most of what’s put in front of you I reckon.

If I had had another full day in Sao Paulo and the weather had been better would I have gone to Ibirapuera Park? No, of course not: Serra da Cantareira or the Tiete Ecological Park would have brought more unusual species, but that’s not a complaint at all. Given the situation I was in it was a good enough choice, and hopefully someone in the same position as myself with just a few hours spare wondering whether it’s worth going to Ibirapuera Park will find this report useful (or they may not - to be honest I know it’s not the best thing I’ve ever written, but right now I’m on a plane to Panama and the famed Canopy Tower and I must admit my mind’s already elsewhere…).