THE SERRA DOS PIRENEUS MOUNTAIN range juts out from the Brazil savanna like ancient, rusty saw teeth, all sharp edges and craggy rocks. The red dirt road that winds through Pireneus State Park to the foot of its highest peak, Pico dos he serra dos pireneus mountain range juts out from the Brazil savanna like ancient, rusty saw teeth, all sharp edges and craggy rocks. The red dirt road that winds through Pireneus State Park to the Pireneus, is pocked by potholes that threaten to destroy the underside of my rental car. On either side stand wizened trees, their waxy, rigid leaves evidence of a complex evolutionary entanglement with the parched environment.
As we park at the Pico dos Pireneus trailhead, my passenger, Estevão Santos, points to a pair of large grassland birds that immediately call to mind dinosaurs. Red-legged Seriemas prey on venomous snakes, he explains, by scooping them up in their bills and beating them on the ground until they’re dead or stunned enough to be eaten. Santos relays this natural history with a casual confidence that belies the expert birder’s young age. At 18 he is tall and slender, and with his long black hair pulled into a ponytail, white linen shirt, leather satchel, and binoculars with a frayed strap, he appears more modern-day Alexander von Humboldt than a high schooler.
Santos started documenting birds when he was seven. He’d scribble observations in a notebook and sketch the birds in his backyard in the state of Goiás in central Brazil. What his parents thought was a passing interest has become his passion. He’s logged more species on eBird than anyone else in Goiás: 512 species to be exact. Since 2016 he’s been working on a book about the birds of central Brazil that contains years of his observations and field studies, which have yielded new information about bird ecology, behavior, and biogeography. “Birds have revealed the landscape to me,” Santos says.
That landscape
