Iguacu Falls Pre-trip: Brazil & Argentina 6/17/2025-6/21/2025

https://ebird.org/tripreport/387082

Iguacu Falls. Photo: David Ascanio ®

The view of a massive waterfall is hard to beat as the start of a visit to the American tropics. Words fall short: Iguaçu Falls is an unwritten poem on the power of Planet Earth, deafening and scary and unspeakably beautiful.

Plush-crested Jay (Cyanocorax chrysops). Photo: David Ascanio ®

We came here to appreciate some smaller but equally beautiful wonders, wonders with wings and colorful feathers. It is always a challenge to find “Her Majesty” the Black-fronted Piping-Guan, but this time, we saw this charismatic Atlantic Rainforest bird on the very first afternoon of the tour.

Two full days followed, one on the Brazilian side and one on the Argentinian. In Brazil, we spent much of the morning along the Pozo Preto road, where, in spite of cloud cover and the darkness of the forest interior, we managed to see the Sao Paulo Bristle-Tyrant and enjoyed brief views of the secretive Southern Antpipit. Then, before the rain started, we moved to the forest edge for a snack and birded a track along the park access road. The heavy rain soon drove us inside, where we enjoyed some good birding from the restaurant terrace, adding a couple of Snail Kites, Cocoi Heron, Great Egret, and Riverbank Warbler.

Sao Paulo Bristle-Tyrant (P. paulista). Photo: David Ascanio ®

Our second day found us on the Argentinian side of Iguaçu Falls on a cloudy day with lower than normal temperatures. Here we had morning views of Creamy-bellied, Pale-breasted, and Rufous-bellied thrushes, along with a family group of Red-crowned Ant-Tanagers, a vocal Ochre-collared Piculet, and the unique Eared Pygmy-Tyrant. We also located Magpie, Ruby-crowned, and Guira tanagers. Toward the end of the road, the one and only Oli spotted a bird of prey: at first glance, it looked like a juvenile Gray-bellied Hawk, never before recorded closer than 50 miles south of our location, but then we considered whether it might not be a juvenile Bicolored Hawk, an identification eventually confirmed on consulting with some experts.

The morning’s light rain didn’t keep us from visiting the falls from the Argentinian side. We walked the bridges to the lookout, with views of Amazon Kingfisher and Rufescent Tiger-Heron along the way, and eventually made it to Devil’s Throat, where the water falls in an impressive semicircle into what seems like a mythic end of the world. Between the light rain and the spray from the falls, we got wet—and hungry. After a delicious barbecue, we headed to two other sites, the Triple Point and the House of Hummingbirds.

White-throated Hummingbird (L. albicollis). Photo: David Ascanio ®

At the Triple Point, we counted the birds flying from Brazil or Argentina into Paraguay, as noted in our checklist. We finished the day at a family home that has become a birding icon in Puerto Iguazu, the Jardin de Picaflores. Seeing hummingbirds is always great, but having such close encounters with them is on another level entirely. Among the specialties of the area, we added Swallow-tailed Hummingbird, Black Jacobin, Planalto Hermit, and White-throated Hummingbird. With seven species of these winged gems on our list, we headed back to Brazil to enjoy another great dinner.

Gilded Hummingbird (Hylocharis chrysura). Photo: David Ascanio ®

Our last morning at Iguacu Falls found us facing another light rain; nevertheless, we were determined to add birds to the trip list. We left the hotel early to bird our way out of the park. The rain got only heavier as we drove toward the lookout, so we turned back to the entrance. Then, magically, the clouds opened to reveal a blue sky, and the birds started singing. We were not going to miss this opportunity, and as we stepped out of the van to inspect the forest edge, we were already hearing White-eyed Foliage-Gleaner. We would subsequently see the astonishing Spot-billed Toucanet, the Atlantic Black-throated Trogon, and the Blond-crested Woodpecker: what a trifecta of superb birds! Happy to have had such a productive half hour, we headed to the airport for our flight to Rio and on to Cuiaba, where our next destination lay—the Pantanal.

A complete list of the birds recorded on our tour can be found at: https://ebird.org/tripreport/387082

Photo album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidascanio/albums/72177720328360150/

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