October 12-30, 2024 with Willy Perez & local guide
Argentina is a vast country with a lot of amazing places to visit and stunning landscapes. This tour concentrates on the Northwest of the country, with superb habitats like the Altiplano, the Yungas, the Chaco and the dry central valleys of the Andes. We kick off in Buenos Aires, where we visited the Costanera Sur reserve on the first afternoon. Here is where the introduction to birding in Argentina began. This reserve has an incredible number of birds and is right in the city. Next, we flew to the north and landed in Jujuy where the adventure truly began.
We did a quick visit to the Yungas on the second day, before going on to the Altiplano for 3 days, where the altitude was high. We enjoyed the impressive Andes and visiting very small towns where life is at a slow pace. This area has several lakes, big and small, and here is where we found a big variety of stunning birds, like, Flamingos (3 species), Ibises, Miners, Tinamous, Condors, Coots -- even the rare Horned Coot. We visited the small town of Yavi where birding was simply amazing. We spent a little more time here than expected due to the moment with our van, but after a quick swap we ventured to Abra Lizoite. This was the highest point of our trip, where we saw the rare Red-backed Sierra Finch.
Having had a successful visit to the Altiplano, we went back to the Yungas, where we visited Calilegua National Park for a couple of days, and this park, with the combination of wet Chaco and proper Yungas Forest, was a big hit. In the lower section of the park, we saw 6 species of Parrots, including the stunning Yellow-collared Macaw. Cream-backed Woodpecker, Variable Antshrike and the huge Great Rufous Woodcreeper were other incredible creatures sighted. The upper part of the park was a whole other world with so many different species, including Giant Antshrike, Blue-capped Puffleg, Slender-tailed Woodstar and a big list of flycatchers, including Slaty Eleania. The night birding here was very productive with stunning views of Montane Forest Screech-Owl, and some lucky people even saw a Spectacled Owl!
Leaving the Yungas behind we went to the Chaco, which is normally one of the hottest places that I have been. We were lucky, as occasionally there is a cold front from the south and the Chaco cools off. We were fortunate enough for this to happen, and so the Chaco was nice and cool, and we could spend our time birding all day long. Here is where we saw the enigmatic Black-legged Seriema, Greater Rhea, Crested Hornero, Scimitar-billed Woodcreeper and the stunning Quebracho Crested-Tinamou. The dry central valleys in Argentina hold the greatest number of the endemics in the region but also the most incredible landscapes of the trip. Sandy Gallito, White-throated Cacholote, Monte Yellow-Finch and Steinbach’s Canastero were present and we managed to see all of them.
The grassland above the lovely little town of Tafi had a couple of big targets that we saw nicely, the rare Tucuman Mountain Finch and another endemic, the beautiful Bare-eyed Ground Dove. Even the longest drive of the trip was very productive; we drove along the stunning Yungas of Rio Los Sosa where we had fantastic looks of another endemic, Yellow-striped Brushfinch, the very restricted Rufous-throated Dipper and a nice male Torrent Duck. On the same day, in the afternoon, we went to Las Salinas Grandes where we enjoyed the sunset but we were also pleased to see a pair of the unique Salinas Monjita.
Our last two nights were at Capilla del Monte, a perfect place to see a combination of species in the wet Chaco but also a bit of grassland around town. Highlights were many but the best ones were Crested Gallito, Tataupa Tinamou, Olive-crowned Crescentchest and Firewood-gatherer, to mention a few. Before we flew back to Buenos Aires we visited Las Sierras Grandes de Córdoba for half a day. Again, the landscape here was unique and the birds were fantastic. Hellmayr’s Pipit, Olrog’s and Cordoba Cinclodes were friendly with us. The last day from Buenos Aires we drove to the Entre Rios province and spent the whole morning there. There were few species left for the last day but it was worth giving it a go. The Little Thornbird, White-naped Xenopsaris, Chotoy Spinetail and Warbling Doradito were some of the highlights.
This trip had a bit of everything along the way; we even shared the flight with an Argentinean celebrity (La Mona Jimenez), and some lucky people even managed to get photos with him. The weather was fair, food was delicious (especially Gabi’s BBQ), the wine was spectacular and the birds were great. Truly, I enjoyed this trip, that is why I want to say thank you to all of you that joined us on this fantastic adventure. I also want to say thank you to Indio, our fantastic local guide and Gabi for his stunning driving and cooking, I will see them again for certain.
For now, gracias and keep birding.
Willy.
Other Wildlife that we saw.
Southern Cavy: Microcavia australis, seen several times in the Yungas and Chaco
Yellow Toothed Cavy: Galea musteloides, seen at the Altiplano
Guinea Pig: Cavia aperea, seen in Costanera Sur
Tawny Tuco Tuco: Ctenomys fulvus, seen in our way to Pozuelos
Yungas Red Tailed Squirrel: Notosciurus pucheranii, Seen at Calilegua
Southern Mountain Viscacha: Lagidium Viscacia
Nutria: Myocastor coypus
Southern Gray Fox: Pseudaloperx griseus
Pampas Fox: Pseudalopex gymnocercus
Culpeo Fox: Lycalopex culpaeus
Brown Capuchin: Cebus apella
Old World Rabbit: Oryctolagus cuniculus
Cape Here: Lepus capensis
Side Necked Turtle: Phrynops hilarii, seen at Costanera Sur
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/291824
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/nar24TRIPLIST.pdf
Hugs from Dorset, Willy