Federal District

The Federal District, including the country’s unique planned capital city of Brasília, is one of the twenty-seven states of Brazil. It is the smallest state and is located in central Brazil, almost completely surrounded by the state of Goiás but having a tiny border with Minas Gerais to the east. The city is famous for its urban planning and modern architecture and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was founded in 1960 to replace Rio de Janeiro as the capital is now the third largest city after Rio and São Paulo having a population of about three million people.

The city sits at a thousand metres (3,300 feet) high on the Brazilian highlands. It has an artificial lake built in order to make more water available and maintain the region’s humidity. Paranoá Lake has a marina and other than the sporting facilities. It also has a sunken village that was where the original builders of the city lived.

Paranoá Lake – ©Veriana Ribeiro CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Brasília has a tropical savanna climate, milder due to the elevation and with two distinct seasons: the rainy season, from October to April, and the dry season, from May to September. The average temperature is 21-22 ^oC. September, at the end of the dry season, has the highest average maximum temperature, 29 °C and November is the month with the highest rainfall of the year, while July is the lowest. During the dry season, the city can have very low relative humidity levels, often below 30%.

Birding Brasilia

For visiting birders, Brasília is the access point for Chapada dos Veadeiros, a large national park (65,000 hectares) located four hours north in the state of Goiás. The park protects rocky Cerrado, the diverse woodland-savanna habitat of Central Brazil, and is home to one of the last populations of the Brazilian Merganser. Birders may also stopover in Brasília on their flight to Cuiabá, the portal to the Pantanal, as well as Chapada dos Guimarães and Serra das Araras.

Brasília National Park – ©Renato BSB CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Within the state itself, the main attraction for birders is Brasília National Park, which contains 30,000 hectares of relatively unspoiled Cerrado, including grassland with tall shrubs and scattered small trees as well as gallery forest. Located just 10 km from the Brasília city centre, the national park is a convenient site to search for regional bird specialties, although it is heavily crowded on the weekends by residents who swim in the large mineral pools near the entrance

Birds that can be seen in the park include are Toco Toucan, Rufous Hummingbird, Helmeted Manakin, Bare-faced Curassow, Scarlet Flycatcher, Squirrel Cuckoo, Long-tailed Tyrant, Hooded Tanager, Saffron-billed Sparrow, Rufous-bellied Thrush and Bananaquit. The park offers various routes and trails that allow you to explore its avifaunal wealth. As you walk through the trails, you can observe many other species such as herons, parrots many others typical of central Brazil.

Rufous-bellied Thrush Turdus rufiventris –© Dubi Shapiro

Two other nature reserves within reach of the city centre include the Jardim Botânico and Parque Ecológico Dom Bosco, both located in the neighbourhood of Lago Sul on the other side of city’s large artificial lake, Lago Paranoá. Two urban parks, Parque da Cidade in the neighbourhood of Asa Sul and Parque Olhos d’Agua in Asa Norte, are also relatively productive birding sites.

Considering all that Brazil has to offer visiting birders, the Federal District is not considered a primary destination, although 400 bird species have been recorded. Moreover, there are several birding sites within the city, and the national park is certainly worth a short visit before heading out to Chapada dos Veadeiros.