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From the humid, lush forests of the Yungas on the lower slopes of the Andes to the driest inter-Andean valleys in Salta, from a sparkling high Andean lake near the Bolivian border to the vast lowland salt flats in northwestern Córdoba, and from dense thorny woodland in the Gran Chaco to the inviting grassy slopes high in Tucumán, northwestern Argentina's incredible diversity of striking landscapes and habitats holds boundless promise for birders.
Like so many other Andean venues, northwestern Argentina offers an exciting and varied mix of birds to both seasoned South American birders and to those who are new to the rich southern Andes. By visiting a sampling of key habitats at several different sites in Jujuy, Tucumán, Salta, and Córdoba provinces, we stand an excellent chance of finding a huge percentage of the intriguing specialties here, along with many widespread southern South American species, in this stunningly beautiful country.
The alluring, epiphyte-laden Yungas forest that stretches from southern Peru to central Argentina holds countless specialties such as the rare and very local Red-faced Guan, Large-tailed Dove, Green-cheeked Parakeet, the rare Tucumán Parrot, the Montane Forest Screech-Owl, the spectacular Lyre-tailed Nightjar, Blue-capped Puffleg (rare), the tiny Slender-tailed Woodstar, Dot-fronted Woodpecker, Spot-breasted Thornbird, the incredible Giant Antshrike, the endemic White-browed Tapaculo, Sclater's and Buff-banded tyrannulets, Plumbeous Black-Tyrant (Andean Tyrant), Brown-capped Redstart, Fulvous-headed and the striking endemic Yellow-striped brush-finches, Rusty-browed Warbling-Finch, and the rare, local, and beautiful Rufous-throated Dipper. One crystal dawn will find us ascending the mountain-ringed puna at Laguna de Pozuelos, stadium for the trio of Andean flamingos and ephemeral home to the fabled Horned (very rare now) and Giant coots. Temperate zone shrub/grassland, seemingly empty of birds to the passerby, is found on close inspection to harbor an amazing variety of small feathered forms, several of which are of quite local distribution, among them Golden-spotted and the endemic Bare-eyed ground-doves (all four Metriopelia ground-doves are likely on this tour), Gray-hooded and Mountain parakeets, the stunning Red-tailed Comet and both Wedge-tailed and Andean hillstars, Maquis (Iquico) and endemic Steinbach's (rare) canasteros, Brown-capped Tit-Spinetail, Zimmer's Tapaculo, the strange White-tipped Plantcutter, Rufous-sided Warbling-Finch, the rare and endemic Tucumán Mountain-Finch, Puna, Bright-rumped, Citron-headed, and Greenish yellow-finches, and the local Red-backed Sierra-Finch.
The dry, thorny habitats of the Gran Chaco, center to one of the continent's most distinctive avifaunas, shelter such seldom-seen specialties as Brushland Tinamou, Chaco Chachalaca, Spot-winged Falconet, Black-legged Seriema, Chaco Owl (rare; a split from the Rufous-legged Owl), Blue-tufted Starthroat, Black-bodied Woodpecker (very rare), Scimitar-billed and Great Rufous woodcreepers, Chaco Earthcreeper, Short-billed Canastero, Little Thornbird, Lark-like Brushrunner, Brown Cacholote, Stripe-backed Antbird, Crested Gallito, Olive-crowned Crescentchest, Cinereous Tyrant, Suiriri Flycatcher (Chaco Suiriri), the dapper Black-crested Finch, and Many-colored Chaco-Finch.
After a couple of days in the warm embrace of the Gran Chaco we'll be ready for a return to the cool springtime of the Argentine Andes. As we've seen previously on this tour, this is stunningly beautiful country, a region in which misty forests with a plethora of birds lies practically at the foot of great mountain deserts spiked with huge columnar cacti where a few bizarre birds, like the strange Burrowing Parakeet and the endemic Sandy Gallito, make their rocky homes.
If you have never chased a ghostly gallito or thrilled to the courtship flight of the Cinereous Tyrant, join us this fall in Northwestern Argentina!
Argentina is such a vast place that to really do it justice, one needs to bird it for a couple of months. If you don't have two months to spend here, our NORTHWESTERN and SOUTHERN ARGENTINA offerings, which we offer back to back every other year, do an excellent job of covering the avifauna. Few tour combos that we offer see such a large percentage of a country’s total avifauna on a regular basis.
Select the KEY INFO tab or click here for our itinerary plus space requests, status, fees, limits, and guides for any departure.
Client comment
"The tour experience was outstanding. Both guides, Field Guides' Willy Perez and local guide Indio, were amazing at finding and getting everyone on the birds. They also worked very well together; and the whole group got along well. Field Guides is my first choice of tour companies, primarily because I like the guides for their personalities and the office staff for their helpfulness." E.L., NORTHWESTERN ARGENTINA
Combo Tours
If you would like a longer birding holiday, some departures of this tour may be combined with:
SOUTHERN ARGENTINA: The Pampas, Patagonia & Tierra del Fuego