Southern Argentina: Spring Magic in Patagonia

Hooded Grebe © Andrew Whittaker

Our Southern Argentina adventure, timed to enjoy the short “Austral summer,” combines an extraordinary array of fascinating habitats offering incredibly diverse birds in this scenically spectacular country brimming with wildlife. Excellent photographic opportunities throughout.

We begin in the famed pampas, south of Buenos Aires, comprised of expansive grassland checkered with haciendas, rich marshes, and scattered trees. During our visit we will explore native coastal Celtis (hackberry) woodlands, marshes, coastal mudflats, and a range of wet and dry grasslands, with broad horizons that evoke W.H. Hudson’s early descriptions of this fascinating region. Avifauna ranges from three-inch hummingbirds to human-size Greater Rheas, from pipits and tiny flycatchers to swans and a rich assortment of waterfowl and waders, and to ponderous Southern Screamers. Specialties include Olrog’s Gull, South American Painted Snipe, Bay-capped Wren-Spinetail, Hudson’s Canastero, Bearded Tachuri, Hudson’s Black-Tyrant, Black-crowned Monjita, Many-colored Rush Tyrant, and endemic Pampas Pipit and Pampas Meadowlark.

The northern reaches of Patagonia are covered by a fascinating scrub-desert, in appearance not unlike the Chihuahuan Desert of the American Southwest. The Valdes Peninsula provides many highlights. An exciting boat trip will allow close observation of the endangered Southern Right Whale and endemic White-headed Steamer-Duck. A South American Sea Lion colony should provide much action, including sought-after Snowy Sheathbills, Dolphin Gulls, Chilean Skua, Southern Giant Petrel, and colonies of Rock and Imperial shags.

We’ll enjoy an unforgettable walk among a huge colony of Magellanic Penguins. Unusual mammals abound, from Guanacos to Patagonian Maras, the latter something like a huge, long-legged rabbit wearing a miniskirt! Fascinating desert birds include Lesser Rhea, Elegant Crested-Tinamou, Darwin’s Nothura, colorful Burrowing Parakeets, Band-tailed Earthcreeper, Straneck’s Tyrannulet, and two endemics: Carbonated Sierra Finch and Rusty-backed Monjita. Saline lagoons hold Chilean Flamingos and large concentrations of southern tier waterfowl such as Black-headed Duck and many shorebirds.

In stark contrast, delightful Bariloche offers high plains, rich Valdivian forests, and cool air, all within the realm of the mighty condor—the perfect base to enjoy an array of montane birds nearly exclusive to this region. Avian highlights include White-throated Hawk, Black-faced Ibis, Rufous-legged Owl, Austral Pygmy-Owl, Magellanic Woodpecker, Chilean Flicker, Black-throated Huet-huet, Chucao Tapaculo, White-throated Treerunner, Thorn-tailed Rayadito, Patagonian Forest Earthcreeper, Cinnamon-bellied Ground-Tyrant, and Rufous-tailed Plantcutter.

Without a doubt, the icing on the cake of this fabulous tour hardly needs an introduction: breathtaking and wild southern Patagonia! Amidst vast, rolling steppe grasslands, snow-capped Andean mountains, and vivid turquoise lakes, we will immerse ourselves in some of the grandest scenery on earth. Many of these Patagonian species are found nowhere else but in the southern tier forests and plains of this beautiful and stark region. Beyond outstanding birding opportunities, we will see a good number of fascinating and colorful plants that grace this region.

A tour highlight will be our visit to Los Glaciares National Park to experience the immense Perito Moreno Glacier, considered by many as one of the modern-day seven wonders of the world. El Calafate, with its Patagonian steppe and Nothofagus (Southern Beech) forests, holds a cast of other delights such as Ashy-headed Goose, Silvery Grebe, Spectacled Duck, Least Seedsnipe, Rufous-chested Dotterel, Lesser Horned Owl, and, of course, the region’s banner species—the unique pink-legged Magellanic Plover (now in its own family)!

We round up our last few days in this awe-inspiring area at a delightful, remote, but extremely comfortable Estancia in search of the beautiful and critically endangered Hooded Grebe and rare Austral Rail—itself only rediscovered to science in 1998—among several other regional specialty birds including Patagonian Tinamou (rare), White-throated Caracara, Cinereous Harrier, Tawny-throated Dotterel, the lovely Chocolate-vented Tyrant, and Patagonian Yellow Finch.

Good to excellent accommodations and stunning scenery throughout; wonderful cuisine and wine; tour moderately paced with easy birding throughout; a short whale watching trip off the Valdes Peninsula; physical demands light to moderate with mostly easy walking on varied terrain; one good long hike for the Hooded Grebe required; weather conditions mostly sunny and pleasant with little chance of rain; however, it can be cooler to cold earlier in the Andes and southern Patagonia, where it may be rather windy at times.

Magellanic Woodpecker © Andrew Whittaker