Neotropical Eco Foundation

One of the most frequent visitors to our backyard is the Sayaca Tanager (Thraupis sayaca). Even though he is average sized for a Tanager at about 6½ inches, the Sayaca is aggressive and very often will literally push other birds away from the food with his chest. He will gulp down great chunks of banana or papaya and then fly off to either enjoy them himself or give them to a fledgling on a nearby branch.

The Sayaca will eat almost everything - probably a key to his great success - but he is particularly fond of bananas. His range covers most of Brazil south of the Amazon as well as Uruguay, Paraguay and northern Argentina. In the southeastern coastal strip of Brazil a closely related Tanager, the Azure-shouldered Tanager has an overlapping range but unfortunately does not reach our backyard. In the area where we live the Sayaca is sometimes considered a pest by the local fruit growers. Figs, grapes and guavas are intensively grown here and the Sayaca will at times attack a plantation in large flocks.

The individual pictured above is perched in a pitanga (Brazilian Cherry - Eugenia uniflora) tree outside our door. Note the relatively heavy black beak and the shading of the blue, going from a blue-gray on the back of his neck to an almost turquoise by the wing tips.

We have found that one of the most enjoyable and relaxing activities that we can do at little or no cost is Backyard Birding. It has been many years since we started, but it continues to give so much pleasure that I decided to create a blog and talk about our experiences and some of the birds that we have spotted.

I'm going to limit myself to our 'backyard' in the city of Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil. It is located in a gated community, all of which I am loosely including as a part of 'our' backyard. That gives us a more varied habitat than would only the physical backyard of our house, and includes a small pond and a patch of woods. In this expanded backyard we have photographed more than 100 species! Being in the neotropics, where fruit and nectar eating birds are quite common, these species outnumber the seedeaters by a large margin. But we have also found that few, if any, species will pass up a piece of banana or papaya, even sparrows and flycatchers! (more on this later).

To start a backyard birding project you need very little. If you have a flower garden and / or some bushes or trees it should be enough. If you live in an apartment you could rig up a feeding platform on a window sill or hang a hummingbird feeder out the window.

All you really need to do is to provide some of the basic needs of our feathered friends - water, food, shelter (shade and cover from predators). As I mentioned, we like to put out bananas and papaya, both inexpensive here in Brazil. We also have some fruit trees and bushes around the property (Acerola, Pitanga, Tangerines). Most of the fruit produced we just leave on the tree. Sometimes we put out water, but that can be a problem here due to mosquitoes. If you have some type of bird bath or just a shallow basin it will do fine, just make sure you change the water daily.

With these simple preparations and a bit of fruit or seeds or sugar water you are good to go with Backyard Birding.