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State of Pernambuco

Eared pygmy-tyrant Myiornis auricularis ©Dubi Shapiro Website

Pernambuco is one of the twenty-seven states of Brazil, which is located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. It covers an area of It covers an area of 98,312 km2 (37,958 square miles) and has a population approaching ten million people. Over 4.3 million of whom live in the metropolitan area of largest city, the state capital, Recife. The area includes the kilometres long beach of Boa Viagem. There are about 185 kilometres (114 miles) of beaches in the state, some of most beautiful in the country, such as at Porto de Galinhas, Carneiros and Calhetas. Pernambuco also has the archipelago, Fernando de Noronha. The proximity of the Equator guarantees an entire year of sun, with average temperatures of 26°C (78.8°F).

Pernambuco comprises a comparatively narrow coastal zone, a high inland plateau, and an intermediate zone formed by the terraces and slopes between the two. What remains of the ancient plateau has been worn down by erosion, leaving escarpments and ranges of flat-topped mountains (chapadas), capped in places by horizontal layers of sandstone. Ranges of chapadas form the boundary lines with three states; the Serra dos Irmaos and Serra Vermelha with Piauí, the Serra do Araripe with Ceará, and the Serra dos Cariris Velhos with Paraíba.

Chapada do Araripe – ©Allan Patrick CC BY-SA 2.0 =via Wikimedia Commons

The coastal area is fertile, and was formerly covered by the humid Pernambuco coastal forests, the northern extension of the Atlantic Forests (Mata Atlântica) of eastern Brazil. It is now place to extensive sugar cane plantations. It has a hot, humid climate, relieved to some extent by the south-east trade winds.

The middle zone, called the agreste region, has a drier climate and lighter vegetation, including the semi-deciduous Pernambuco interior forests, where many trees lose their leaves in the dry season.

The inland region, called the sertão is high, stony, and dry, and frequently devastated by prolonged droughts (secas). The climate is characterised by hot days and cool nights. There are two clearly defined seasons, a rainy season from March to June, and a dry season for the remaining months. The interior of the state is covered mostly by the dry thorny scrub vegetation called caatinga. The Rio São Francisco is the main water source for the area.

The climate is milder in the countryside of the state because of the Borborema Plateau. The island of Fernando de Noronha in the Atlantic Ocean, 535 km northeast of Recife, is part of Pernambuco.

Fernando de Noronha  – ©photo pantai CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The rivers of the state include a number of small plateau streams flowing southward to the São Francisco River, and several large streams in the eastern part flowing eastward to the Atlantic. The former are the Moxotó, Ema, Pajeú, Terra Nova, Brigida, Boa Vista and Pontai, and are dry channels the greater part of the year. The largest of the coastal rivers are the Goiana River, which is formed by the confluence of the Tracunhaem and Capibaribe-mirim, and drains a rich agricultural region in the north-east part of the state; the Capibaribe, which has its source in the Serra de Jacarara and flows eastward to the Atlantic at Recife with a course of nearly 300 miles; the Ipojuca, which rises in the Serra de Aldeia Velha and reaches the coast south of Recife; the Serinhaen; and the Uná. A large tributary of the Uná, the Rio Jacuhipe, forms part of the boundary line with Alagoas.

Birding Pernambuco

There are Atlantic Forest remnants near the coast and border areas; they support endangered and localised Atlantic Forest species.

The Caatinga in the Interior is semi-arid scrubland. This holds specialised dry-forest and scrub birds adapted to arid conditions.

Typical Caatinga – ©Otávio Nogueira CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The islands of Fernando de Noronha and the rest of the archipelago feature some unique island endemics as well as a high concentration of seabirds.

There are three endemics; the Pernambuco Pygmy-Owl Glaucidium mooreorumn, the Noronha Elaenia Elaenia ridleyana and the Noronha Vireo Vireo gracilrostris that is found only on the archipelago. There are also some notable species and restricted range specials; these include Plain Parakeet Brotogeris tirica, Pygmy Nightjar Nyctipolus hirundinaceus (A small, highly sought-after nightjar species found in arid and semi-arid regional vegetation) and the Seven-coloured Tanager Tangara fastuosa, which is a brilliantly coloured tanager native to the lowland humid forests of northeast Brazil. Pinto’s Spinetail Synallaxis infuscata is found here as are some localised foliage-gleaners and regional furnariids that are associated with threatened forest fragments.

Top Sites

  • Reserva Privada do Patrimônio Natural Frei Caneca

    PDF Information
    …a private protected area of 630 ha - prime site for the Alagoas endemics…
Contributors
Number of Species

  • Number of bird species: 730

    (As at August 2026)
Endemics

  • Number of endemics: 3

    Pernambuco Pygmy-Owl Glaucidium mooreorumn Noronha elaenia Elaenia ridleyana Noronha Vireo Vireo gracilrostris
Checklist

  • Avibase

    PDF Checklist
    This checklist includes all bird species found in Pernambuco , based on the best information available at this time. It is based on a wide variety of sources that I collated over many years. I am pleased to offer these checklists as a service to birdwatchers. If you find any error, please do not hesitate to report them.

  • Wikipedia

    Checklist
    This list of birds of Pernambuco includes species documented...

  • eBird

    PDF Checklist
    This checklist is generated with data from eBird (ebird.org), a global database of bird sightings from birders like you. If you enjoy this checklist, please consider contributing your sightings to eBird. It is 100% free to take part, and your observations will help support birders, researchers, and conservationists worldwide.
Museums & Universities

  • Universidade Federal de Pernambuco

    Website
Organisations

  • Fundação Gilberto Freyre

    Facebook Page
    O Sítio Ecológico da Fundação Gilberto Freyre está situado no bairro de Apipucos, na cidade do Recife, no entorno da Casa onde viveu o sociólogo e escritor pernambucano. Trata-se de uma área com cerca de 10.000m2, remanescente dos antigos quintais de tempos passados.
Reserves

Abbreviations Key

  • FR Pernambuco coastal forests

    InformationSatellite View
    Forests remnants are small, most with less 10 km² and surrounded by sugarcane fields.

  • IBA Serra do Uburu

    WebpageSatellite View
    ust 2% of Pernambucu's Atlantic Forest survives, so despite its small size (by Latin American standards) of around 1,000 hectares, Serra do Uburu is of extreme biological importance. Recognised by BirdLife as an Important Bird and Biodiveristy Area (IBA), it is home to one of the rarest passerines in Brazil, the Alagoas Foliage-gleaner Philydor novaesi, and at least 20 other endemic species from the Atlantic Forest slopes.

  • NP Parque Nacional do Catimbau

    InformationSatellite View

  • NR Caetés Ecological Station

    InformationSatellite View
    It protects one of the last remnants of the semi-deciduous forest that once covered the west of the state, and is home to a population of the highly endangered black lion tamarin.
Sightings, News & Forums
Guides & Tour Operators

  • BirdQuest

    Tour Operator
    ULTIMATE NORTHEAST BRAZIL – the most comprehensive itinerary for Brazil’s most endangered endemics.
Trip Reports

  • 2018 [10 October] - André Weiss - Fernando do Noronha

    Report
    Fernando do Noronha is not very diverse in birdlife as it's a rather remote island. However, there are two endemic species, the Noronha Vireo and the Noronha Elaenia. Some birders just fly in, bird around the airport to see those two species and take a next flight back. That's a shame because the island is utterly beautiful and hosts also several seabird species.

  • 2019 [01 january] - Bret Whitney & Marcelo Barreiros

    Report
    Descending the steep face of the Chapada do Araripe, we headed south into the arid interior of Pernambuco, making productive stops for some very welcome Masked Ducks (a couple of fine adult males with some female-plumaged birds), our first perched Cactus Parakeets, Little and Green-barred woodpeckers, Narrow-billed Woodcreeper (buffy subspecies bahiae), a tremendous Red-shouldered Spinetail, Black-bellied Antwren, Stripe-backed Antbird, Black-backed Water-Tyrant, and White-throated Seedeater

  • 2019 [03 March] - Marcelo Barreiros

    PDF Report
    The next few days were also good, with some special birds such as the Orange-bellied Antwren, Willis's Antbird, the beautiful Seven-colored Tanager, many Long-tailed Woodnymph, Amethyst Woodstar, and many more in the Frei Caneca and Pedra D'Anta. During our visit to the beautiful beach of Tamandaré, we had one of the most spectacular encounters of the tour, a pair of one of the rarest of the rare in the world, White-collared Kite, flew over our heads, giving us a fantastic look. Later, before leaving the state of Pernambuco, we saw a single Pinto Spinetail.

  • 2022 [12 December] - nJosh Beck

    PDF Report
    ...Mata de Aldeia km 17 - this is a forest block just NW of Recife. It is a good spot for Pernambuco Foliage-Gleaner which I found and had much better views of finally on my last afternoon of birding...

  • 2023 [02 February] - Bret Whitney & Marcelo Barreiros

    Report
    ...But the birds were still out there, of course, and we managed to find almost all of the (surviving) specialties of both the humid Pernambuco area of endemism and the widespread caatinga of the semi-arid interior...

  • 2024 [11 November] - Susan Bryan

    Report

  • 2025 [02 February] - Eduardo Patrial

    PDF Report
    We had a good stop when crossing Pernambuco, we were lucky to see several Comb Ducks and a few more White-bellied Nothuras. And just before our destination, a brief stop near Bendegó offered several Blue-winged Macaws...

  • 2026 [01 January] - Bradley Davis

    PDF Report
    ...Then on to Pernambuco where there were quite a few rare and or restricted range birds for all of us and nicely filling a few missing Brazillian endemics for me such as Scalloped Antbird, Orange-bellied Antwren, Alagoas Tyrannulet and Golden-tailed Parrotlet...

  • 2026 [02 February] - Bruno Rennó

    PDF Report
    ...we made good time and arrived to visit Bendegó to observe the evening flight of the elegant Blue-winged Macaws. We stood at the confluence of the seasonal Bendegó and Salobro rivers, where we recorded a Suiriri Flycatcher. In that bucolic landscape, to the sound of the macaws' clamor, we contemplated another beautiful sunset and concluded another excellent day of this long and memorable journey...
Other Links

  • Pernambuco Pygmy Owl Glaucidium mooreorum

    Website
    The Pernambuco Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium mooreorum) was first described in December 2002 when two study skins were examined in Pernambuco, Brazil. The skins were originally collected in 1980 and thought to be subspecies of the Least Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium minutissimum) or Amazonian Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium hardyi). Upon closer examination of the skins, and vocalisations of the birds also obtained in 1980, it was concluded that this was a new species. The name mooreorum was chosen in honour of Dr. Gordon Moore and his wife Betty, who have made significant contributions to conservation
Blogs

  • Observadores de Aves de Pernambuco

    BLOG
    A OAP é uma Organização Não Governamental que integra adeptos e simpatizantes da atividade de observação de aves, uma opção de lazer acessível a todas as idades, e que valoriza principalmente, além de conhecer e respeitar as aves, o contato saudável com diversos ambientes naturais...

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