After an early breakfast, we’ll drive about 1 hour to a back road that accesses the higher zones of the National Park. The stunted forest and scrub here host a very different set of birds, and the unmistakable calls of Black-and-gold Cotingas ring out through the mist. Hearing them is easy! Seeing them often takes a lot of persistence and patience. We’ll target several species along the lower parts of the road like Rufous-tailed Antbird, Large-tailed Antshrike, Serra do Mar Tyrannulet, and Black-capped Piprites. Forest patches can be quiet until a mixed species flock comes whirling through, and then we can be inundated with birds like Diademed and Brassy-breasted Tanagers, Buff-throated and Bay-chested Warbling-Finches, Pallid Spinetail, Rufous-backed Antvireo, Sharp-billed Treehunter, and White-browed Woodpecker. We’ll check a regular lekking site for Green-crowned Plovercrest, where several males of this superb-looking hummingbird usually perch and chirp incessantly. Further up, the forest becomes shorter, and we’ll try various spots for the endemic Itatiaia Spinetail, and for sure we’ll try to look for Araucaria Tit-Spinetail. After a picnic lunch, we’ll bird a side road lower down the valley that passes through pastures and light woodland. The birding here is easy and offers very different birds like Toco Toucans, screeching Curl-crested Jays, handsome White-eared Puffbirds, dancing Streamer-tailed Tyrants, among others. Hotel do Ype (B/L/D)