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NORTHERN ARGENTINA

Birdquest's Northern Argentina birding tour explores the less-visited but much more bird-rich northern half of this great birdwatching country. Our Northern Argentina tour provides very comprehensive coverage and produces an extraordinary list of regional specialities.

Friday 10th October - Saturday 1st November 2014
(23 days)

Leader: Mark Pearman

Group Size Limit: 9

Tour Category: Easy to Moderate

The mind-blowing Iguazú falls is arguably the best place to find the endangered Black-fronted Piping-Guan (Ron Knight)

Justly famed for its enormous range of impressive scenery, Northern Argentina also offers one of South America’s greatest birding experiences. In the west the mighty, snow-capped Andean peaks tower over remote puna grasslands, thorn deserts clad in columnar cacti and flower-strewn valleys. The luxuriant ‘yungas’ cloudforests of the Andean slopes give way to the arid thorny plains and palm savanna of the ‘chaco’ and to vast flat grasslands, traditional home of the gaucho. If one travels still further to the east, beyond the mighty Rio Paraná, the myriad of lakes and marshes eventually give way to the tall subtropical Paraná rainforests of Misiones and the awesome Iguazú Falls.

This ever-changing scenery, comprising six major habitat types, leads to an extraordinarily rich and diverse avifauna, including some of South America’s least known species, many with a very restricted distribution. Whilst watching Tucumán Mountain-Finches in shrubby Andean gullies, Sandy Gallitos running through desert valleys, Rufous-throated Dippers bobbing about on rushing mountain rivers, jay-sized Giant Antshrikes in beautiful cloudforests and Strange-tailed Tyrants amidst the climax grasslands of the Iberá marshes we shall enjoy these rare and spectacular birds amongst some of the most attractive and unspoilt landscapes on the continent.

In addition to the many specialities, a wide variety of rheas, tinamous, seriemas, waterbirds, raptors, guans, parrots, cuckoos, hummingbirds, puffbirds, woodpeckers, woodcreepers, antbirds, tapaculos, tyrant-flycatchers, finches, tanagers and icterids, and an unrivalled selection of ovenbirds with evocative names (miners, earthcreepers, cinclodes, horneros, cacholotes, spinetails, canasteros, thornbirds and foliage-gleaners), ensure a bird list of a quantity and quality hard to equal.

This is a truly superb bird tour with the most comprehensive single itinerary in Northern Argentina available, providing the opportunity to see a great variety of species including numerous little-known endemics and other specialities. Magnificent scenery, good food, superb wines, comfortable accommodations and mostly excellent road conditions make travelling through Northern Argentina a wonderful and unforgettable experience. Our journey takes us through some of the least known areas of Argentina, where we can enjoy warm hospitality, good food and comfortable lodgings.

From Buenos Aires we fly to San Miguel de Tucumán, our gateway to the magnificent Andes of Tucumán, Salta and Jujuy. Here we shall explore high puna tussock grasslands and cactus deserts, as well as other Andean habitats, which have on offer some little-known endemic or near-endemic specialities, many of which are rare and little-known, including Moreno’s Ground-Dove, the macaw-like Burrowing Parrot, Wedge-tailed Hillstar, Rock and Buff-breasted Earthcreepers, Scribble-tailed, Steinbach’s and Maquis Canasteros, the striking White-browed Tapaculo, the chunky White-throated Cacholote, Sandy Gallito, Rufous-throated Dipper, Brown-backed Mockingbird, Rufous-bellied Saltator, Tucumán Mountain-Finch, Red-backed Sierra-Finch, Citron-headed Yellow-Finch, Short-tailed Finch and the striking and very localized endemic Yellow-striped Brush-Finch. There will be many other great birds as well, ranging from the magnificent Andean Condor to Torrent Duck.

In the yungas cloudforests and high altitude alder forests above Salta we will be looking for such interesting species as the rare Red-faced Guan, the spectacular Lyre-tailed Nightjar, Rothschild’s Swift, Spot-breasted Thornbird, Rufous-capped Antshrike, Andean Tyrant, Rusty Flowerpiercer and Fulvous-headed Brush-Finch.

High altitude lakes in this region are home to Andean and Puna Flamingos, and in some years the rare Horned Coot, while Polylepis-filled gullies hold specialities such as Tawny Tit-Spinetail, Zimmer’s Tapaculo and Short-tailed Finch.

Our final Andean birding will take place in the exuberant cloudforests of Calilegua National Park where a suite of special birds includes Yungas Dove, Alder Amazon, White-throated Antpitta and the spectacular Giant Antshrike (the largest of all the antbirds).

Next we will explore the dry chaco woodlands of lowland Salta, a unique and bird-rich habitat, with specialities such as Black-legged Seriema, Quebracho Crested-Tinamou, Chaco Owl and Cinereous Tyrant.

Leaving the west behind, we encounter a sudden change of scenery as we enter the humid chaco, characterized by palm savanna and punctuated with forest islands before eventually reaching the wonderful but little known Iberá marshes in Corrientes province, paralleled on the continent only by the Brazilian Pantanal or Venezuelan Llanos. Here both the density and the diversity of waterbirds and raptors has to be seen to be believed and the rich local avifauna includes some rare and threatened tyrant-flycatchers, seedeaters and icterids, as well as the endangered Yellow Cardinal.

From here our journey takes us on to a region of rolling ‘campos’ before we enter the Paraná subtropical rainforest of Misiones. After visiting the sierras of Misiones with their impressive remnant Araucaria (monkey-puzzle) stands, home to several unique birds, we eventually finish our journey at the awe-inspiring Iguazú Falls in the extreme northeast of Argentina. Here, against a backdrop of one of the world’s most impressive waterfalls, we will wander in magnificent humid subtropical forest in search of a host of species which reach the southern limits of their ranges in this glorious part of Argentina.

Birdquest has operated tours to Argentina since 1989.

(Note: The above is a summary of the tour. For more information please download the detailed, day-by-day itinerary. The button is at the top right of the page.)

Accommodation & Road Transport: The hotels/lodges are of normal Birdquest standard throughout. Road Transport is by partly by small coach or minibus and partly by 4x4 vehicles. Roads are mostly good, but unsurfaced in some areas.

Walking: The walking effort is easy to moderate.

Climate: Rather variable. Temperatures will range from warm or hot at lower altitudes to cool or even cold at higher altitudes. Sunshine is likely to alternate with overcast conditions and we are likely to experience some rain (or even snow at higher altitudes). It will be humid in the Paraná lowlands.

Bird Photography: Opportunities are quite good.

Part-Tour Option: Subject to space being available, we can accept bookings for any part of this itinerary (for example, the Andes from San Miguel de Tucumán to Libertador General San Martin/Calilegua, or from Salta through the chaco to the Iberá marshes and Iguazú Falls). Please contact us for further information.

Tour Price: (provisional): $7890 Buenos Aires/Buenos Aires. Price includes all transportation (including Buenos Aires-San Miguel de Tucumán and Iguazú-Buenos Aires flights), all accommodations, all meals, bottled water, some drinks, all excursions, all entrance fees, all tips for local drivers/guides and for accommodations/restaurants, leader services.

Single Room Supplement: (provisional): $998.

Deposit: 10% of the tour price (excluding any single supplement).

Air Travel To & From The Tour: Our in-house IATA ticket agency can arrange your air travel in connection with the tour from a departure point anywhere in the world, or you may arrange your own air travel if you prefer. We can tailor-make your itinerary to your personal requirements, so if you would like to travel in advance of the tour (and spend a night in an hotel so you will feel fresh when the tour starts), or return later than the end of the tour, or make a side trip to some other destination, or travel business class rather than economy, we will be happy to assist. Please contact us about your air travel requirements.

One of Argentina's most threatened species is the oustanding Yellow Cardinal (Ron Knight)

The highly sought-after secretive Tucuman Mountain-Finch is another Yungas Forest endemic (Ron Knight)

The stately Greater Rhea is a common sight on the endless savanna (Ron Knight)

A bizarre male Spectacled Tyrant with its yellow eye wattle and striking wing pattern (Ron Knight)

The Straight-billed Earthcreeper is just one of over sixty species of ovenbird found on this tour (Ron Knight)

A pair of localized Streamer-tailed Tyrants performing a mind-blowing synchronized wing-rotating display; the New World's largest flycatcher (Ron Knight)

View Map Download Detailed Itinerary 617kb

Report From October 2008/November 2008 Report From October 2009/November 2009

The Black-legged Seriema is a secretive denizen of the arid chaco woodlands (Ron Knight)

The Ornate Tinamou is one of the many tinamous of this tour; our record being twelve species "seen"! (Ron Knight)

A smart male Torrent Duck, readily encountered in the north-west Andes (Ron Knight)

The White-tailed Hawk is just one of the many raptor possibilities of the tour (Ron Knight)

Any tour to the Andes would incomplete without the magnificent Andean Condor (Ron Knight)

Thousands of Great Dusky Swifts gather behind the vast curtains of water at Iguazú falls (Ron Knight)

A gorgeous Red-tailed Comet is one of several gawdy hummingbirds found on this tour (Ron Knight)

The stunning Slender-tailed Woodstar is Argentina's smallest bird and a Yungas forest speciality (Ron Knight)

...as is the scarce and the local Rufous-throated Dipper (Ron Knight)

...and the poorly known smart Rufous-bellied Saltator (Ron Knight)

The bizarre White-tipped Plantcutter is a fairly common cotinga on this tour (Ron Knight)

Rusty-collared Seedeater is one of seven seedeaters which we regularly find in the Iberá marshes (Ron Knight)

The most unusual White Woodpecker is one of twenty-five woodpeckers recorded on the tour (Ron Knight)

The outrageous Blond-crested Woodpecker is a scarce inhabitant of the subtropical rainforest of Misiones (Ron Knight)

The colourful Green-headed Tanager is a regular along the maze of walkways at Iguazú falls (Ron Knight)

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