Watercolour of Brazil

Brazil is big - twice the size of the European Union - and appears to cover most of South America. I made many trips there to work on insect control in a variety of crops.

I arrived in Sao Paulo where, from my hotel balcony, I could listen to the first parrots and watch Black Vultures glide past. From there, the fruits and vegetables of the east could be visited.

There's an awful lot of coffee in Brazil - it's by far the world's largest producer.

Healthy coffee berries (aptly called cherries) are harvested when their flesh has ripened to a deep (and tasty sweet) red.

The fruit is removed, and the remaining seeds (beans) are spread out on huge concrete 'patios' to dry in the sun.

After drying, the green beans are sorted for quality. The farm I visited had a machine which measured the colour of each bean as it passed through a tube, and those which failed to make the grade were ejected by a puff of air. The beans are then ready to be shipped for roasting at the destination country. The farm grew a number of varieties; from highly aromatic to 'fillers' high in caffeine. They told me the aromatic beans were shipped to sophisticated markets, such as Italy and Japan, whilst the less aromatic bulk was sold to the USA.

Brazil is also by far the world's biggest producer of orange juice. I worked on control of the Citrus Leafminer (Phyllocnistis citrella), a pest introduced from Japan. Its larvae make beautiful mines on the leaves.

From there I used to fly over 1,000 kilometers west, to the Mato Grosso - a vast plain in the centre of South America.

This is where most of Brazil's 15,000 square kilometers of cotton is grown, and a variety of caterpillars and bugs have more than enough cotton bolls to munch through.

Big areas need big machines, and here they use one to pack cotton in the field.

But in the scale of the plains of Brazil, the cotton area is a mere drop in a metaphorical ocean compared to the other crops I visited. Sugar cane takes up 90,000 square km. Here they have a problem with Froghoppers...

...and they treat them with another big machine.

Beyond this there is maize (170,000 square km), and the daddy of them all, soybean, at 340,000 square km - an area almost the size of Germany. Most of the beans are sent to China to feed its 310 million pigs.

Driving across the grassland we followed a group of Rheas (Rhea americana).

The farmed fields of the Mato Grosso surround something very special - the Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetland (pantano in Portuguese), covering over 150,000 square kilometres (to keep the comparisons going, it is four times the size of Switzerland). It is a huge geological depression which receives water from the surrounding uplands to create an inland delta. Surprisingly, only 1% of it is national park - the rest is mainly occupied by cowboys who control 8 million cattle from ranches known as 'fazendas'.

I would spend my weekends in a fazenda next to river. 

Fish for dinner was guaranteed.

Yacare Caiman (Caiman yacare) were never far away from the jetty.

I passed their nests on the water.

But the nests are more scruffy and less pretty than those of birds - here of the Wattled Jacana (Jacana jacana).

And here the adult.

The Cane Toad (Rhinella marina), a native of northern South America, is the largest toad in the world. It has poison glands in its skin which are toxic to potential predators. It was intocuced into Austalia in 1935 to control cane beetles, and is now widespread. But it failed to control the beetle.

Every evening, at sunset, Hyacinth Macaws (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) would come and roost in the tree outside my room.

During the day is was difficult to avoid the loud calls of the Chaco Chachalacas (Ortalis canicollis). The name says it all.

In the surrounding fields the high rise apartments of termites.

Burrowing Owls (Speotyto cunicularia) perch. They use their long legs to run after prey on the ground as well as chasing in flight.

The Crested Caracara (Polyborus plancus). Despite being a bird of prey, it also hunts on foot - often scavenging in competition with the vultures.

When I lived in Brussels, there was a huge communal nest of introduced Monk Parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) in the middle of a roundabout near our house. It was strangely shocking to see one in its natural habitat.

Other birds in the area were the Grey-fronted Dove (Leptotila rufaxilla)...

...Orange-backed Troupial (Icterus croconotus)...

...Yellow-billed Cardinal (Paroaria capitata)...

...Blue-crowned Trogon (Trogon curucui)...

...Rufous-tailed Jacamar (Galbula ruficauda)...

...and the wonderful White Woodpecker (Melanerpes candidus).

Much of the Pantanal is covered in water, much of the time. Boats provide a calm way to explore for wildlife, but on a horse one can walk where walking isn't possible. I explored with my Brazilian colleague Paolo Aramaki.

In amongst the water hyacinths, a Rufescent Tiger Heron (Tigrisoma lineatum) patiently waits for a meal to pass by...

...though it may bite off more than it can chew.

Also probing in the wetlands, the Buff-necked Ibis (Theristicus caudatus)...

...Bare-faced Ibis (Phimosus infuscatus)...

...Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) and Wood Stork (Mycteria americana).

Waiting for fish from the branches, a Ringed Kingfisher (Megaceryle torquata) - here a female, sporting a blue breast whereas males have all chestnut fronts...

...and an Amazon Kingfisher (Chloroceryle amazona) or Green Kingfisher (Chloroceryle americana) - only told apart by the former being larger. The female in these species have green patches on their breasts instead of the chestnut of the males.

The Jabiru Stork (Jabiru mycteria). It is the tallest flying bird in South America, standing up to 1.5 metres, and has a wingspan of up to 2.8 metres - second only to the Andean Condor.  Jabiru means 'swollen neck' in the indigenous Tupi-Guarani language (we also use their language for petunia, jaguar, piranha, tapioca...). It was first decribed by Martin Hinrich Carl Lichenstein in 1819 - the same man who described the Impala, as mentioned in the previous blog on South Africa.

Among the more aerial hunters, a juvenile Great Black Hawk (Buteogallus urubitinga). 

The Black-collared Hawk (Busarellus nigricollis) is a fish-feeder scattered over the wetlands of South America.

Sometimes, when scanning the trees with my binoculars, I think I see animals in the shapes of the trees. Here a branch stump looked to me like a big grey lizard.

Then the sun caught it, and its head moved. It was a Potoo (Nyctibius griseaus), a bird related to the nightjars. They hunt at night, and rest on branches during the day - where they blend in to avoid being eaten.

On the ground, a definite lizard - a Green Iguana (Iguana iguana).

Closer relatives of ours can be seen swinging through the treees: Black Howler Monkeys (Alouatta caraya) - though the female, as here, is brown...

...and Azaras's Capuchin (Sapajus cay), which is found only in this part of South America.

I stumbled on a Marsh Deer (Blastocerus dichotomus), the largest deer in South America. It is a vulnerable species, now restricted to a few wetland areas.

When night fell it was hypnotic to watch the bats feeding on the insects flying around a light.

Then off on a night drive to find nocturnal animals. Our headlights caught the eyes of this Nightjar, the relative of the Potoo. I know not which species - there are over twenty in Brazil.

And as we drove, something big lumbered across the road in front of us - forcing us to a stop. We watched, hearts thumping, as it cautiously passed us and slipped into the water at the side of the road - to emerge on land and disappear into the night. A South American Tapir (Tapirus terrestris). The largest mammal in South America.