Welcome to Birdquest
SOUTHERN & CENTRAL ARGENTINA
Birdquest's Southern & Central Argentina birding tour is a classic South America birdwatching experience. Our Southern & Central Argentina tour provides very comprehensive coverage and produces an extraordinary number of regional endemics and other specialities.
Wednesday 20th November -
Monday 2nd December 2013
(13 days)
Córdoba Pre-Tour Extension from Sunday 16th November (4 days)
Tierra del Fuego Post-Tour Extension to Saturday 6th December (4 days)
Leader:
to be confirmed
Group Size Limit: 10
Tour Category: Easy for the most part, occasionally Moderate (and one optional rather Demanding hike)
The huge and stunning Magellanic Woodpecker is one of the most highly-sought species of the southern beech forests. They are often located by their double rap drum, which sounds almost like a shotgun! (Andy Livermore) For more photos from Southern Argentina, please see our other tours there.
Argentina is the eighth largest country in the world – almost a third the size of Europe! Stretching for over 2200 miles (3500km) from the Bolivian border to the sub-Antarctic coasts of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina possesses an enormous variety of landforms and climates which is reflected in its great diversity of wildlife. Argentina is a classic destination, undoubtedly one of the best birding countries in the world, not only offering superb, mostly easy birding but also good accommodations, food, transport and roads.
Over 1000 species of birds have been recorded, an amazingly high total for a country which lies almost entirely outside the tropics and thus cannot boast any lowland tropical rainforest. With its fantastic scenery and marvellous and generally easy, open-country birding, ranging from impressive avian spectacles to a host of endemic species, Southern and Central Argentina is definitely one of the greatest birding journeys one can undertake. The contrasts are extreme, ranging from the arid landscapes of the Córdoba region of central Argentina to the wild moorlands, mountains and fjords of Tierra del Fuego in the far south, and from the humid grasslands of the pampas and the windswept, semi-desert plateau of Patagonia in the east and southeast to the icy, snow-clad peaks of the Andes with their glaciers, mountain lakes and forests of breathtaking beauty in the west.
For the birdwatcher, Southern and Central Argentina provides an overwhelming variety of novel and spectacular experiences: rheas, tinamous, a great variety of seabirds (including penguins in their tens of thousands, albatrosses and diving-petrels), flamingos, most of South America’s wildfowl, Andean Condor, some superb shorebirds including Magellanic Plover, seedsnipes, Snowy (or Pale-faced) Sheathbill, a bewildering array of ovenbirds with evocative names (miners, earthcreepers, cinclodes, horneros, cacholotes, spinetails, canasteros, thornbirds, rayaditos and treerunners), a plethora of tyrant-flycatchers and an exceptional assortment of finches and icterids, never mind the seals and whales!
Ours is the most comprehensive tour of Southern & Central Argentina available, producing more of the speciality birds than any other.
Our journey will take us from the pampas of the Buenos Aires region to the far south of the country so that we can experience this diversity to its full as we seek out some of the continent's most spectacular birds amidst some of the world's finest scenery.
After a short stopover in Buenos Aires, where we will look for Sharp-billed Reedhaunter and many other birds, we will explore the pampas of Buenos Aires province with its great abundance and variety of wetland and grassland birds, eventually working our way south via San Clemente del Tuyu to Bahia Blanca for the endemic Pampas Meadowlark and San Antonio Oeste for yet more endemics or near-endemics, including Hudson’s Black-Tyrant, Carbonated Sierra-Finch and Yellow Cardinal.
Travelling still further south, we will reach Puerto Pirámides and Trelew on the windswept Patagonian coast of Chubut province, where the highlight of our stay will be the vast penguin colony at Punta Tombo (nearly a million birds!), and the impressive concentrations of seabirds and marine mammals at the Valdés Peninsula, never mind another great collection of endemics and regional specialities.
Finally we will explore southern Patagonia, penetrating far into the interior to visit newly discovered sites for the near-mythical endemic Hooded Grebe and Austral Rail, and watch Magellanic Plovers and Austral Canasteros. We will also enjoy the outstanding scenic grandeur of Los Glaciares National Park where an immense glacier advances into a large lake surrounded by humid southern beech forest, inhabited by the splendid Magellanic Woodpecker and White-throated Treerunner, and high peaks where Andean Condors soar overhead. Argentina is so spectacular a country, and the birding so enjoyable, that we are going to find it hard to leave after experiencing it for ourselves!
The optional pre-tour extension will see us heading northwestwards from Buenos Aires to Córdoba in order to explore the isolated and little known Sierra de los Comechingones, where we should find three highly localized endemic ovenbirds, Olrog’s and Córdoba (or Chestnut-winged) Cinclodes, and Córdoba Canastero, and the saline flats of Salinas Grandes, home of the endemic Salinas Monjita. We will also check out some woodland for the rare Black-bodied Woodpecker.
During the optional post-tour extension we continue to the island of Tierra del Fuego, at the very tip of South America. Here we will explore the grasslands and wetlands of northern Tierra del Fuego, home of the endangered Ruddy-headed Goose. Moving further south, we will be able to admire the spectacular landscapes around Ushuaia, the most southerly city in the world, as we look for Kelp and Ashy-headed Geese, Flying and Fuegian (or Flightless) Steamerducks, and the uncommon Yellow-bridled Finch, while a boat trip in the Beagle Channel should produce Gentoo Penguins, Black-browed Albatrosses and Magellanic Diving-Petrels.
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 are of normal Birdquest standard almost throughout. The estancia guesthouse in the Gobernador Gregores region, where we stay one night, is pleasant and comfortable but there are only a few rooms. Singles will not be available and there will be three people in some or all rooms. Road transport is by small coach or minibus and roads are mostly good.
Walking etc: The walking effort is mostly easy, but there are some moderate walks and one optional rather hard uphill hike in Tierra del Fuego in search of White-bellied Seedsnipe. There are some long drives.
Climate: Rather variable. Temperatures will range from warm or hot in the pampas to cool or even cold in the south. Sunshine is likely to alternate with overcast conditions and we are likely to see some rain (or possibly even snow at high altitude in the far south). It will be rather humid in the pampas and it is often windy in the south.
Bird Photography: Opportunities are quite good.
Tour Price: (provisional): $5310 Buenos Aires/Buenos Aires. Pre-Tour Extension: $1470. Post-Tour Extension: $1540. Price includes all transportation (including all flights inside Argentina), 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): $583 (excluding the night at the estancia guesthouse in the Gobernador Gregores region). Pre-Tour Extension: $146. Post-Tour Extension: $220.
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.
Time spent at a Magellanic Penguin colony is always enjoyable! (Andy Livermore)
A Lesser Rhea jealously guards his offspring (Andy Livermore)
Snowy Sheathbills can be found surprisingly far north along the coast, scavenging for whatever they can find! (Andy Livermore)
82 photos
View Gallery Photos From SOUTHERN & CENTRAL ARGENTINA
The attractive and distinctive Thorn-tailed Ryadito is another inhabitant of the southern forests (Andy Livermore)
The declining Andean Condor is still pleasingly common at the southern end of its range (Andy Livermore)
The magnificent Hooded Grebe is one of the most highly-prized Southern Cone endemics (Andy Livermore)
An interesting selection of wildfowl in the south includes the rare Ruddy-headed Goose (Andy Livermore)
... and the similar Ashy-headed Goose (Andy Livermore)
The strange Spot-winged Falconet is a real treat on this tour (Andy Livermore)
The attractive Elegant Crested Tinamou is one of the showier members of its family (Andy Livermore)
The localized Olrog's Gull usually shows well (Andy Livermore)
Long-winged Harrier is an attractive inhabitant of the pampas (Andy Livermore)
Interesting mammals include Humboldt’s Hog-nosed Skunk (Andy Livermore)
Birdquest LLC, 3721 Executive Center Drive, Suite 268, Austin, TX 78731
Ph: 512-343-1700, Fax: 512-343-1701
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