List of birds of Brazil

The rufous-bellied thrush is the national bird of Brazil.

Brazil has one of the richest bird diversities in the world. The avifauna of Brazil include a total of 1860 confirmed species of which 238 are endemic. Five have been introduced by humans, 93 are rare or vagrants, and seven are known or thought to be extinct or extirpated. An additional 14 species are hypothetical (see below).

Brazil hosts about 60% of the bird species recorded for all of South America. These numbers are still increasing almost every year, due to new occurrences, new species being described, or splits of existing species. About 10% of the bird species found in Brazil are, nonetheless, threatened.

In June 2013 a simultaneous discovery of fifteen bird species in Brazil was announced, the first such since 1871, when August von Pelzeln described forty new species.[1] The birds were from the families Corvidae, Thamnophilidae, Dendrocolaptidae, Tyrannidae, and Polioptilidae.[2] Eleven of the new species are endemics of Brazil and four also inhabit Peru and Bolivia.[1]

Except as an entry is cited otherwise, the list of species is that of the South American Classification Committee (SACC) of the American Ornithological Society.[3] The list's taxonomic treatment (designation and sequence of orders, families, and species) and nomenclature (common and scientific names) are also those of the SACC.[4] Two additional species are added from other sources and are not included in the above counts.

The notes of population status, for instance (endangered), are those of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.[5] The status notes apply to the worldwide population, not solely the Brazilian population except for endemic species.

The following tags have been used to highlight several categories of occurrence.

  • (V) Vagrant - a species that rarely or accidentally occurs in Brazil
  • (E) Endemic - a species endemic to Brazil
  • (I) Introduced - a species introduced to Brazil as a consequence, direct or indirect, of human actions
  • (H) Hypothetical - a species recorded but with "no tangible evidence" according to the SACC


  1. ^ a b "15 new species of birds discovered in Brazil". Wildlife Extra News. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
  2. ^ "Novas aves da Amazônia" (PDF) (in Portuguese). Pesquisa FAPESP. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
  3. ^ Pacheco, Jos Fernando; Quevedo Agane, Carlos Eduardo (September 25, 2023). "Species lists of birds for South American countries and territories: Brazil". South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  4. ^ Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, G. Del-Rio, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 27 July 2024. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved July 28, 2024
  5. ^ The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2017-3. http://www.iucnredlist.org accessed 17 February 2018.