Relatively speaking, I've had a fair amount of luck observing tinamou species in Brazil. In Ecuador, where I lived for six years, I hardly ever saw one on my own, only noting birds when guides pointed them out at known roosting sights with a spotlight. For the uninitiated, tinamous are plump, terrestrial, and rather vocal birds, but they prefer dense cover and are nearly impossible to see. However on a recent short trip to Intervales State Park, I not only spotted but photographed two different tinamou species, both the Brown and Solitary Tinamous. And at Chapada dos Veadeiros last weekend, I patiently pulled in this inquisitive Spotted Nothura, or Nothura maculosa, a common but still infrequently seen tinamou of the Cerrado.
