Do you love animals? Come and find an immense collection in its natural habitat, the Atlantic Forest. In the Brazilian indigenous tradition each animal has a meaning. Finding an animal is a message. For animal sighting tours look for our guides.

Vale do Café has exuberant fauna. We are going to show you just a few. Starting with the birds. More than 200 species have already been scientifically identified in the region. Plan to experience the first rays of sunshine here. They bring a love to life, an inexplicable happy animation encouraged by the diverse calls of multicolored, multiform birds!

One of the Vale do Café’s symbols is the Yellow-bellied Surucuá Grande, a beautiful blue bird with a yellow belly and an ecological soul: it is the largest seed disperser in the Atlantic Forest. You will probably have the chance to find one on your way: it means prosperity.

Seriemas, elegant birds, our winged mermaids, great predators of snakes, are heard from afar. They are more difficult to see. The Carcará Eagle, actually from the falcon family, is a presence guaranteed in splendid solitary overflights in the late afternoon. Flores, Tucanose flocks of Maritacas frequent the backyards naturally. The famous Vulture, helps to clean nature.

And if you are lucky enough to hear the Urutau, or “Mother of the Moon” a light-colored night bird, singing at night, you can be sure: according to the people of the forest, all the best in life will happen to you. The singing is incredibly beautiful and pentatonic, it has five sounds!

Among the most loved and respected mammals here, also chosen as friendly symbols are the anteater that feeds on ants, the national cabybaras and Paca with their spots. They are easy to spot animals. In addition to these, families of Coatis, Micos, Monkeys, Guarás Wolves, Caxinguelês (squirrels, another synonym for luck on the way) are often seen. The rarer sloth loves Embaúba fruits and leaves and may, who knows, be seen clinging to one.

Butterflies, fireflies, scarabs, incredible insects such as the leaf bug  the stick bug (small branch shape), the Mantis (it seems to be in a praying position) further render the forest.

In the fantastic river kingdom, the variety is enormous: Dourados, Cascudos, Robalos, Lambaris, Carás, Traíras, Surubim do Paraíba, Piabanhas, Nhacundás, Curimbatás, Cameroon, Muçum, Uçá Crabs and many others.

Between water and land, I notice the huge artistic group of lizards of different sizes, decorated, green, or smooth that love the sun, or in the multicolored frogs and hammered frogs singing at the end of the night.

To close with a flourish, try to see the “Uanás” in the spring and summer nights, hundreds of fireflies that create a beautiful and fairy-like phenomenon of lights on the edge of the forests.

Curated by the Botanical Zoo of Morro Azul