Birdbirds multiply in the country and value poetry with wings – 11/09/2023 – É Logo Ali
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In his beautiful “Poeminho do Contra”, the Gaucho poet Mario Quintana warns that “all those who are there, blocking my path, they will pass…I little bird!”
And it is birding that an increasingly numerous group of national and foreign tourists travels along the trails and forests throughout Brazil, looking up, in search of the holy grail of the rarest bird, the most beautiful, the one that remains to be photographed for its private album of winged figurines. They are the birds — but not the evil ones, who capture and smuggle their prey, but the good ones, who just want to observe the most beautiful thing nature has created and let it continue its flights.
Birdwatching, which is how Brazilian aficionados define the act of observing birds known around the world as birdwatching (literally, watching birds), originally emerged from the interest in natural history in Victorian England. At the time, scholars or simple lovers of the exotic sought to enrich their collections with eggs, feathers and stuffed animals — no, preservation was not yet a concern at that time. This would only begin to be discussed at the end of the 19th century, when groups organized themselves internationally to defend the preservation of species in nature. In place of traps, cages and bullets, binoculars and careful eyes came into play.
In Brazil, birding began timidly, but has intensified in the last ten years, as reported by ornithologist from Resende (RJ) Bruno Brennó, 40, who for 15 years has dedicated himself to guiding tourists eager to see more than 2 thousand species of birds spread across the different biomes of the country. Most of these birders, he says, are foreign tourists, mainly from the United States and England, where the activity is more widespread.
“But in the last ten years the demand here in Brazil has also grown a lot”, he says, crediting the interest to the fact that information about the activity reaches people more easily with the help of the internet and the encouragement of the collaborative platform WikiAves, which brings together information about all bird species in the country, and is open to everyone’s participation.
“Brazil is a country that stands out on the international scene in terms of the number of birds registered, there are almost two thousand species registered, we are second only to Colombia”, says Brennó, remembering that, in the past, people imagined that, in order to see more different birds, , it would be necessary to go to the Amazon. “But in each region we have a set of typical species, and 250 of them are endemic, that is, they are only found here”, he adds.
If foreigners are still the majority among birders, the number of aficionados here is growing exponentially. There are almost 50,000 on the WikiAves platform alone, although Brennó estimates that there are many more aficionados who don’t bother registering their sightings on the website.
“Because there are several aspects,” he explains. “Whoever is on the platform is the one who photographs the birds observed, but there are those who just want to look, or even record the different sounds of the species”, he adds.
The best thing about birding is that it’s accessible to everyone — and to start, says Brennó, “just open the window and use your cell phone.” Soon the person will want to buy more or less powerful binoculars, a fancy camera and, that’s it, they’ll become a birder.
Brennó considers that it happens that a certain bird that is precisely the one that the tourist came to look for does not show up in its habitat. “Whoever works as a guide has the experience, knows the best places to see the target at that time, we put together a whole plan to try to maximize the chances of finding the animal, but very rare species may simply not show up and, then, the real birder, who is interested, ends up coming back for a new attempt”, he says, remembering a situation like this in which the group wanted to see the Brazilian Merganser, a critically endangered species that only occurs in Brazil, in Serra da Canastra.
“Its habitat is a place with rivers, rapids, clean water with plenty of fish, and forest around it”, defines Brennó. “Nowadays this is increasingly difficult to find and it doesn’t just depend on us”, she adds. Along the same lines of frustration, he recounts the terrible surprises of arriving with a group of birders to a place where until a few months ago there was a beautiful forest full of life “and finding everything burnt, dead, deforested, a feeling of indescribable impotence”.
“You know what it’s like to look at those people who trusted you and have to say, look guys, unfortunately I can’t do anything”, he laments.
But of course, not everything is disappointment when dealing with so many winged beings. Brennó says that one of the most exciting moments of his career as an ornithologist was finding a little bird that lives in the Amazon, the black-throated hatchling. “It’s such a rare bird that until about 10, 15 years ago, no one knew anything about it. We located the species in Rondônia, on a research expedition, and have already included it in observers’ trips”, he says. Another species that took him by surprise was the Helmeted Japu, a species that only appears in the extreme west of Brazil, on the border between Acre and Peru, and that appeared ahead of him in the state of Mato Grosso.
And what does it feel like to spend all these years looking up in search of the next feathered animal? “Ah, it’s very gratifying to provide experiences like these to those who, like me, have dreams of finding rare species and knowing that I’m the intermediary”, she responds, opening a big smile.
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