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Moderately dense woodland (cerradão) grew in two isolated patches of bushy savanna (cerrado) in central São Paulo over 23 years of bird censuses. Various uncommon birds were lost and some forest species were permanently gained. Fall and winter fruits attract long and short-distance migrants. Woodpeckers and some birds that nest in their holes seem to disappear during tree growth. Some birds in weedy areas nearby disappeared when the pastures replaced these areas, however sugar cane reduced the numbers of birds even more up to the point when some areas became pastures once more. Even travel-prone species disappear with vegetation growth in cerrado protected fragments, and therefore "metapopulations" may not survive over time, only in space.

Some 231 birds were recorded on a sandy plateau in central Sao Paulo, in an area forming a natural "habitat spectrum", from dry or wet grasslands to bushy ones (campo-cerrado) plus gallery scrub, marshes, and low woods. Subtracting 12 species that mostly flew over, and 56 species that seemed to be vagrants or accidental visitors, 163 species were regular (including 14 that center in nearby anthropogenically-modified zones). The 69 in gallery areas are mostly regionally common woodland species, but one southeastern species has disappeared over the years and three northwestern dry-forest species have entered. The 81 grassland species include several rare birds, and hence are important despite exhibiting lower biodiversity than in regional forest areas. Seven rare species disappeared over the years, some due to lack of fires, others because of either recent "greenhouse" dry years or protected vegetation growing to taller campo-cerrado. Several other species are becoming rare. Low vegetation forms a spectrum of temporally unstable habitats that change rapidly; one needs actively managed large areas and corridors even though many open-area birds can fly long distances to varying habitat patches.

Some 255 birds were recorded between 1982-2001 in and near a 2314-ha "Horto" of old eucalyptus plantations with native understory and a lake, near Rio Claro, in central São Paulo, Brazil. This is close to the 263 recorded in and around a ten-times smaller nearby 230-ha woodlot of semideciduous forest. Different species were 44, for a total of 307 in both areas. One hundred and fifty nonvagrant forest and border species were recorded in 1982-86, a number close to the 152 in the small native woodlot. With dry years and logging of plots in 1985-93, 21 of the 150 species were lost, 42 species decreased in numbers, 49 were stable, 19 increased (15 being border species), and 5 entered (one of dry forest and 4 of borders), so 129 species remained in 1996-2001 compared to 133 in the native woodlot. Open-area birds were 33, versus 50 in better-checked grassy swales in sugar cane near the natural woodlot, for a total of 53. Several species, like some border ones, did not enter the open but isolated and mowed interior lake area, or took years to do so. Water and marsh birds were 46 versus 40 in smaller creeks and ponds near the natural woodlot (total, 55) but many were migrants or infrequent visitors using distant areas, and perhaps should be counted as 0.1-0.9 "local species" rather than "1" species. Use of this more accurate method would reduce waterbird totals by 14 "species" in the Horto and by 11 around the native woodlot. I also recommend longer censusing at the edges in large woodlots or many edge species will be recorded only in small fragments of habitat. Several species increased and others decreased with occasional cat-tail and water-lily cleanups at the lake. A forested corridor between the Horto and natural woodlot is recommended, with old eucalyptus left to provide flowers for hummingbirds.

We report Pelecitus helicinus Railliet & Henry, 1910 from 13 species of birds of 2 orders and 7 families, collected from the states of São Paulo and Mato Grosso, Brazil. All 13 constitute new host records for this nematode. In addition, we report the first record of Aprocta golvani Diaz-Ungria, 1963 from Brazil and Monasa nigrifrons (Bucconidae), as well as a number of other nematode records from Neotropical birds.

Some 263 birds were recorded near and in a 230-ha patch of semideciduous forest in cane fields of central São Paulo, Brazil. Subtracting 67 open-area species, 22 of marshes or creeks, 10 vagrants and 12 recorded later, 152 forest and border species were recorded in 1982-86, much like what was observed in a similar woodlot near Campinas. Both woodlots lost species gradually over the years. Some birds avoided hard cane-field edges, preferring soft bushy edges. Of open-area species, 22 seemed to have disappeared by 1997 due to earlier high El Niño rains or rare permanently open habitats in the sugar cane; 17 new species were mostly nocturnal ones not noted earlier, or occasional visitors. Forest and borders lost 31 species, gaining five of dry regions and one winter visitor. Several migrants from the south appeared only in wet years before recent greenhouse effects, some resident birds were hunted, and canopy hummingbirds were perhaps still present. Dry-forest travel-prone or "metapopulational" species moved their centers of distribution, partly concealing loss of moist-forest diversity.

The Picazuro Pigeon nests in all months of the year in southeastern Brazil. Nest material is plucked from trees or ground and carried to build a frail and transparent nest of sticks where one egg is laid. Female and male alternate in incubation and brooding and do not soil the nest with feces.

An August or winter nestling of Eupetomena macroura was fed only every 40-50 min for at least 24 days in the nest, with fewer feedings at midday. As in other hummingbirds, it was brooded only the first week or two, and left alone even on cool nights after 12 days, probably due to the small nest size. The female attacked birds of many non-nectarivore species near the nest, in part probably to avoid predation. Botfly parasitism was extremely high, as in some other forest-edge birds.

We describe the opportunistic adaptation to man-induced changes in the habitats of six neotropical Caprimulgidae. Habitats created by those changes, and similar to their original and usual ones, are readily occupied by these nightjars. The occasional invasion of urban environments ("urbanization") is the most recent and most remarkable behavioural adaptation.