Some ornithological observations of interest from Área de Reserva para Parque Nacional San Rafael, Itapúa department, Paraguay

at 72,849 ha the “Área de Reserva para Parque Nacional San Rafael” (departamentos itapúa and caazapá) is the second largest block of upper paraná atlantic forest remaining in eastern paraguay and widely considered the highest priority for conservation of the endemic atlantic forest avifauna in the country (cartes et al. 2008). the avifauna of the reserve has been well documented (lowen et al. 1996, madroño et al. 1997, Smith et al. 2006, esquivel et al. 2007, esquivel and peris 2011, Smith and clay 2015) with most field effort in recent years concentrated on estancia nueva gambach (pro cosara). detailed descriptions of this locality are provided by cartes (2008), esquivel and peris (2011) and Smith and clay (2015). the San rafael reserve list stands at 426 spe- cies, making it the most ornithologically diverse protected area for birds in paraguay (Smith and clay 2015). here we provide documentation for five additional species which take the park total to 431 species, including two new records for itapúa department and formal documentation of one species for paraguay that was previously known only from literature reports. additionally we provide information on three additional ob- servations of interest.