Parque do Zizo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
30-31 July 2006

Introduction:
I’ve just spent an inspiring and wonderful couple of days birding the superb Parque do Zizo - an area of (mostly) primary rainforest 700m above sea level in the Serra da Paranapiacaba about three hours drive south of Sao Paulo.

Set up by the Balboni family using a government compensation package this private natural reserve is a living memorial to one of their brothers (Luis, or ‘Zizo’, who was killed by the military junta in 1969 (see the photo of the ‘memorial wall’ below) and is set in 400ha of one of the largest remaining areas of the once huge Atlantic Coastal Rainforest.

‘Hand-built’ almost entirely by Chico and George Balboni over the last eight years, the Parque features two accomodation blocks (the rooms, incidentally, have showers and are surprisingly comfortable with freshly-laundered sheets on the bed); a dining-area with a wood-burning stove and a gas cooker, where some excellent food was served up almost continuously (I think I’m the first ‘veggie’ they’ve had stay here, but they coped brilliantly); and an adjacent covered ‘relaxation’ area with hammocks and seating (which we didn’t use on this particular trip!). There’s no electricity here (the dining area is illuminated by gas lamps and the rooms by candles), water comes via a natural spring, and all waste - human or otherwise - is either recycled or carried out. Additionally, all birding is done on foot - vehicles other than the owner’s are not allowed - along numerous narrow trails winding through different parts of the forest.

The result of all this is that a visit to Parque do Zizo is about as close as its possible to get to staying in a natural and untouched forest without having to endure sleeping under the trees or drinking from streams!

Parque do Zizo - entrance

Parque do Zizo - lodges and dining-area

Memorial to Luis “Zizo” Balboni

Guided by the energetic and extremely likeable Guto Carvalho (an ardent supporter of the Parque’s aims, and whose contact mail address is guto AT dedoverde.com.br) and a young and vibrant mammal researcher Camila Pianca, I really only had the better part of about 28 hours at Zizo (I went straight from the airport but had to get back to Sao Paulo for a shuttle flight or I’d have stayed for a few more days) - just about long enough to wind down from the flight from London and get my head around the fact that I was standing in virtually pristine Brazilian rainforest. Or to realise (again) just how accurate the term “rainforest” is: if I had ever doubted why a “rain forest” is called a “rain” forest I was in no doubt by the time I left by the way. I spent most of the visit standing in something like the fine mist that comes from one of those moisturiser sprays many airline passengers use: great for your skin but a bit tough on binoculars and cameras. But that’s how things go sometimes of course, and nothing will ‘dampen’ the sheer thrill of finding somewhere like the Parque do Zizo in a country that is often represented as nothing more than a huge ecological disaster!

Birds and Birding:
Considering that Parque do Zizo has only been ‘open for business’ for a couple of years, its birdlist (at a little over 210 species) is already pretty good, and as there are very few Brazilian birders and the checklist is almost entirely based on a few visits made by intrepid overseas birders like Jeremy Minns (see Arthur Grosset’s fantastic website for details) and Bob Planque there’s no doubt that it will grow over the years as more people spend time in there. The list does already include around 25 Brazilian endemics, and the Parque probably has a birdlist similar to the much-better known Intervales some 50km away.

Having said that, birding here is not particularly easy - especially in this weather - unless you stay around the more open areas around the Lodges where there are some short trails that cut through some dense bamboo clumps and a small pond where remarkably (or so I thought given we were in dense jungle) I saw a Green Kingfisher! The staff keep a couple of feeders by the dining-area supplied with bananas and slices of papaya which attract in a few of the less skittish tanagers - particularly Black-goggled (the commonest tanager here), Magpie, Green-headed, and Blue Dacnis.

Bananaquit Coereba flaveola

 

Magpie Tanager Cissopsis leverianus

 

Male Black-goggled Tanager Trichothraupis melanops

 

Green-headed Tanager Tangara seledon

 

Male Blue Dacnis Dacnis cayana

 

Female Blue Dacnis Dacnis cayana

The main access road - which from a birding point of view starts where it crosses a wooden bridge by the main entrance gates - is an excellent place to find some of the smaller funariids and other passerines as they track along the edge of the trees and bamboos or cross the path. There is the almost constant ’singing’ here of Buff-fronted Seedeater and Uniform Finch (a penetrating and very loud triple note, and a fizzing trill respectively), and it’s also a good site to catch a brief glimpse of a resident pair of Slaty-breasted Wood Rails as they slip away into the undergrowth. The majority of the birds I saw were along or just off this road, and it’s also where I took the photos of the White-tailed Trogons below as they sat shivering in the drizzle and occasionally disconsolately fluttered up into the foliage looking for the virtually non-existent insects…(in fact, there were a few around as we did see one beautiful moth the size of a small bat that came hurtling out of the darkness, swooped round a few times, and dived straight into the wood fire the staff were cooking the evening meal on - a shame as by the time we reacted to save it all that was left was a furry red and black abdomen the size of a little-finger with two charred stumps hanging off it…)

 

Male White-tailed Trogon Trogon viridis

 

Female White-tailed Trogon Trogon viridis

 

Olivaceous Woodcreeper Sittasomus griseicapillus

 

Male Uniform Finch Haplospiza unicolor

The higher trails - all of them cut by either Chico or George - are apparently where some of the more unusual species can usually be found, but despite a rather hopeful trudge up into the forest we were met with an almost audible silence and a cold drizzle as we either reached the bottom of the clouds or the clouds saw us coming and - in the typically welcoming style of Brazilians - came down to meet us…

The higher trails are also the better areas to look for mammals according to Camila, and three monkey species, Tapir, and the occasional Puma and Jaguar are said to still live in the forest: I’m sure they do, but I think (okay, I KNOW) you’d need to spend more than a day and a half here to see them…

I would guess from the point of view an experienced overseas-birder I actually saw relatively few birds (I heard a lot more than I saw of course) but given the time that I had, the fact that it’s winter in the southern hemisphere and it was cold and wet, I think I did fairly well and apart from the species already mentioned I had reasonable (if not photographic) views of such beautiful and/or ‘exotic’ birds as Saw-billed Hermit and Violet-capped Woodnymph, Spot-breasted and Plain Antvireos, Lesser and Thrush-like (Plain-winged) Woodcreepers, Black-capped, Buff-fronted, and White-eyed Foliage-gleaners, Star-throated Antwren, Ferruginous Antbird, Long-billed Attila, Chestnut-crowned and Crested Becards, and Red-necked, Ruby-crowned, and Red-crowned Ant-tanagers. There was no sign whatsoever of either Sharpbill or Cinnamon-vented Piha incidentally - both of which I expected to see from reading online reports…

In the end though, the birdlist really wasn’t what was important for me on this visit. I wanted to see for myself whether the Parque’s description of itself as ‘eco-friendly’ could be justified, and I would really like to impress upon any reader (or potential visitor) that the Parque is being run as ecologically-friendly as is humanly possible, and the education programmes carried out here will undoubtedly prove to be very important in the long-run: in other words it deserves our support. If you get a chance to visit, take it: it’s a far better way of spending your money than traipsing round the shops of Sao Paulo…

Getting to Parque do Zizo:
It’s worth noting that you can’t just drive to the Parque. You can get close, but the road for the last few kilometres is very muddy and deeply rutted: a 4WD is absolutely essential. I’ve driven in some rough areas in a 2WD but I wouldn’t have wanted to try this particular road in a TANK it was so mucky and even experienced drivers like Guto occasionally need to be towed out of particularly slippery puddles (Chico keeps the road this way to discourage hunters and palm-cutters visiting when there’s no-one on-site to look after the Parque by the way - and it seems to work!).

The best way to get to the Parque is either to arrange to be picked up in Sao Paulo (email Guto, guto AT dedoverde.com.br, in advance to discuss arrangements and costs), or drive most of the way and then be met. To do the latter, take the Rodovia Castelo Branco out of Sao Paulo and exit to the motorway to Sorocaba. Follow the signs to the Rodovia Raposo Tavares, and take this motorway round Sorocaba. Take exit 102B to Salto de Pirapora, Pilar do Sul and Sao Miguel Arcanjo. At the roundabout at the entrance to São Miguel Arcanjo turn left. Follow this asphalt road for 7.5 km when it turns to dirt. Follow this dirt road for 13.5 km and then turn off it to the left (marked by a stone pillar). After a further 1.5 km you come to some charcoal burning ovens (carvoaria) on the right where you can leave your car. By arrangement visitors can also be picked up in Sorocaba or Itapetininga (reachable by bus from Sao Paulo).

The Future:
Guto is on a ‘council’ that is looking at ways of promoting and protecting Parque do Zizo, and we discussed two ideas that he has had: the first is to develop a carbon-offset scheme where palm trees (the particular species he has in mind fruits at times of the year when few other trees do, providing food for the park’s wildlife) to offset the fuel used to get to the Reserve; and secondly a “Friends of Zizo” group to provide additional funding.

He has promised to keep me updated about both these ideas as they develop.

Trip List (Species in bold seen in Zizo, the rest outside):

Pied-billed Grebe Podilymbus podiceps 1; Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis 3; Brazilian Teal Amazonetta brasiliensis 2; Black Vulture Coragyps atratus 100+; White-tailed Kite Elanus leucurus 1; Roadside Hawk Buteo magnirostris 1; Yellow-headed Caracara Milvago chimachima 20+; Chimango Caracara Milvago chimango 6-8; American Kestrel Falco sparverius 2; Rusty-margined Guan Penelope superciliaris 1; Slaty-breasted Wood Rail Aramides saracura 1; Common Moorhen Gallinula chloropus 2; Southern Lapwing Vanellus chilensis 40+; Picazuro Pigeon Columba picazuro 20+; Eared Dove Zenaida auriculata 20+; Ruddy Ground-dove Columbina talpacoti 50+; Grey-fronted Dove Leptotila rufaxilla 1; Blue-winged Parrotlet Forpus xanthopterygius 2; Plain Parakeet Brotogeris tirica 1+; Scaly-headed Parrot Pionus maximiliani 10+; Blue-bellied Parrot Triclaria malachitacea 2; Squirrel Cuckoo Piaya cayana 1; Guira Cuckoo Guira guira 1; Smooth-billed Ani Crotophaga ani 3-4; Burrowing Owl Athene cunicularia 3; Saw-billed Hermit Ramphodon naevius 2; Violet-capped Woodnymph Thalurania glaucopis 1; White-tailed Trogon Trogon viridis 3; Green Kingfisher Chloroceryle americana 1; White Woodpecker Melanerpes candidus 2; Yellow-fronted Woodpecker Melanerpes flavifrons 2; Campo Flicker Colaptes campestris c)10; Rufous Hornero Furnarius rufus 4-5; Buff-fronted Foliage-gleaner Philydor rufum 3-4; Black-capped Foliage-gleaner Philydor atricapillus 2+; White-eyed Foliage-gleaner Automolus leucophthalmus 1; Thrush-like Woodcreeper Dendrocincla turdina 1; Olivaceous Woodcreeper Sittasomus griseicapillus 6-8; Lesser Woodcreeper Xiphorhynchus fuscus 1; Spot-breasted Antvireo Dysithamnus stictothorax 1; Plain Antvireo Dysithamnus mentalis 3-4; Star-throated Antwren Myrmotherula gularis 2; Ferruginous Antbird Drymophila ferruginea 3; Blue Manakin Chiroxiphia caudata 1; White-crested Tyrannulet Serpophaga subcristata 1; Grey-hooded Flycatcher Mionectes rufiventris 2; Yellow-browed Tyrant Satrapa icterophrys 2; Long-tailed Tyrant Colonia colonus 3; Cattle Tyrant Machetornis rixosa 3; Grey-hooded Attila Attila rufus 1; Great Kiskadee Pitangus sulphuratus 1; Chestnut-crowned Becard Pachyramphus castaneus 2; Crested Becard Pachyramphus validus ; Blue-and-white Swallow Notiochelidon cyanoleuca 20+; Southern House Wren Troglodytes musculus 3-4; Chalk-browed Mockingbird Mimus saturninus 10-12; Rufous-bellied Thrush Turdus rufiventris 4-5; Creamy-bellied Thrush Turdus amaurochalinus 2; White-necked Thrush Turdus albicollis 4-5; Rufous-crowned Greenlet Hylophilus poicilotis 1; Masked Yellowthroat Geothlypis aequinoctialis 3; White-browed Warbler Basileuterus leucoblepharus 1; Golden-crowned Warbler Basileuterus culicivorus 2-3; Neotropical River Warbler Basileuterus rivularis 1; Bananaquit Coereba flaveola 3; Magpie Tanager Cissopis leveriana 8-10; Ruby-crowned Tanager Tachyphonus coronatus 3-4; Black-goggled Tanager Trichothraupis melanops 10+; Red-crowned Ant-tanager Habia rubica 2; Sayaca Tanager Thraupis sayaca 4-5; Azure-shouldered Tanager Thraupis cyanoptera 1-2; Chestnut-bellied Euphonia Euphonia pectoralis 2; Green-headed Tanager Tangara seledon 6-8; Red-necked Tanager Tangara cyanocephala 2+; Blue Dacnis Dacnis cayana 2-4; Blue-black Grassquit Volatinia jacarina 3-4; Buffy-fronted Seedeater Sporophila frontalis 10+; Uniform Finch Haplospiza unicolor 10+; Rufous-collared Sparrow Zonotrichia capensis 8-10; Chopi Blackbird Gnorimopsar chopi 3-4; Yellow-rumped Marshbird Pseudoleistes guirahuro c)10

Guto Carvalho and Camila Pianca (and one very muddy Land Rover)

Brazilian Teal Amazonetta brasiliensis (seen en-route)

Burrowing Owl Athene cunicularia (seen en-route)

Ruddy Ground-dove Columbina talpacoti (seen en-route)

White-crested Tyrannulet Serpophaga subcristata (seen en-route)

All photos copyright Charlie Moores