Birdwatching Holiday Argentina Main

Argentina - Main tour

Saturday 22 November to Monday 8 December 2008

Saturday 21 November to Monday 7 December 2009

with Judy Davis and David Fisher as leaders

Birdwatching in the Beagle Channel

Cost: £3260 plus about £800 for flights (2008)
Single room supplement: £380

Click here for explanation of price breakdown

Maximum group size:8 with 1 leader; 16 with 2 leaders.

The second named leader will only join the tour if there are more than 8 participants.

This tour can be taken in conjunction with Argentina: High Andes and also Argentina: Iguazú

Bird List

Booking Form

'This turned out to be one of my all-time favorite trips! In addition to outstanding birds, we had wonderful mammals and scenery too. The Argentinian people were warm, friendly and helpful. I truly enjoyed Judy and David’s leadership! They were knowledgeable, experienced, and they worked tirelessly to show us the birds. I am so impressed with them, I am hoping to sign up for their Venezuela tour. I would travel with them again in a heart beat!' C. Wolcott 2007.

'Scenery and birds made each day a highlight in an action-packed tour. Thoroughly enjoyed our first trip with Sunbird and hoping the next will be just as good.' R. Ward 2005.

'Thanks to Judy and David for a fantastic holiday. There were many memorable highlights. Especially the sightings of the Magellanic Woodpeckers - on trees and in flight, very close. The red head of the male was dazzlingly brilliant.' T. Dant 2005.

'The whole tour was excellent with many highlights - the scenery in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, the glacier, and the boat trips. If I have to pick one highlight it would be the Magellanic Woodpecker.

N. Denison 2005.

Argentina contains a greater variety of habitats than any other South American country. Stretching from the sub-tropical forests around Iguazú Falls to the sub-Antarctic island of Tierra del Fuego, the landscapes are as varied as one could wish, and the birds are similarly diverse. Our tour starts in the pampas southeast of Buenos Aires, home to countless waterbirds and raptors and moves south to explore the Valdez peninsula, which typifies many people’s image of Patagonia: dry stony plains covered in xerophytic bushes and dotted with tinamous and rheas, remote shingle beaches teeming with elephant seals and sea lions, whales just offshore and colonies of seabirds.

We’ll then visit Los Glacieres National Park to see one of the world’s few advancing glaciers and search the forests and steppes for a variety of birds from seed-snipe to sierra-finches. Finally we’ll visit “the land of fires”, Tierra del Fuego, where we’ll look for Magellanic Woodpeckers in magnificent southern beech forests and sail down the Beagle Channel amongst albatrosses, penguins and sea-lions.

Sunbird has been running tours to Argentina since 1995 and this will be Judy and David's 13th tour there.

Day 1: The tour starts in London with an evening arrival in Argentina. Night in Buenos Aires.

Day 2: We will spend the morning visiting the wetland reserve of Costanera Sur established on reclaimed land very close to the city centre. This remarkable reserve holds a wealth of waterbirds including such delights as White-tufted Grebe, Whistling Heron, Lake Duck, Black-necked and Coscoroba Swans, and sometimes the rather local Black-headed Duck. White-winged, Red-gartered and Red-fronted Coots, and Plumbeous Rails nest among the aquatic vegetation and Monk Parakeets chatter in the surrounding trees. In late morning, we will depart for San Clemente del Tuyo, a coastal resort southeast of Buenos Aires where we will spend two nights exploring many different habitat zones including coastal, wetland and pampas areas. Night in San Clemente.

Day 3: After an early morning visit to San Clemente harbour to look for the endangered Olrog's Gull, we'll visit nearby Punta Rasa, an area of sand dunes and salt marshes rich in birds. On the sandy beaches and mud-flats there will be flocks of waders, including American Oystercatchers and hundreds of White-rumped Sandpipers, large flocks of wintering terns, along with a few local Snowy-crowned Terns and groups of graceful Black Skimmers. In the reeds and rushes around the salt marsh we may see Bay-capped Wren-Spinetail and Long-tailed Reedfinch. On the edge of town we'll look for Firewood-gatherer, named after its habit of building enormous nests of dry sticks. In the afternoon, we'll explore the pampas areas just inland, where we should see a wide selection of pampas birds, including Maguari Stork, Whistling Heron, White-faced Ibis, Yellow-billed Pintail, Rosy-billed Pochard, Southern Screamer, Snail Kite, Long-winged Harrier, Guira Cuckoo and Scarlet-headed Blackbird. We'll also search for Greater Rhea, Spotted Nothura, Silver Teal and South American Painted Snipe. Night in San Clemente.

Day 4: Following an early morning departure from our hotel, we'll spend the day making many stops, including a reed-fringed canal where we will search for Stripe-backed Bittern, Black-headed Duck, Curve-billed Reed-haunter, Sulphur-bearded Spinetail, Wren-like Rushbird, Warbling Doradito and Many-coloured Rush-Tyrant. We will spend time in the afternoon searching for Giant Wood Rail and any other pampas birds we may have missed during our time in San Clemente. We'll arrive in Buenos Aires in the late afternoon and spend the night there.

Day 5: We will return to Costanera Sur this morning and bird the interior of the reserve with our focus being on finding some of the species that inhabit the more wooded areas including Dark-billed Cuckoo, Freckle-breasted Thornbird and Black-and-rufous and Black-capped Warbling Finches. Following lunch at a nearby parilla, we will take a late afternoon flight to Trelew in Patagonia. Night in Trelew.

Day 6: This morning we’ll visit the vast Magellanic Penguin colony at Punta Tombo. En route to the colony we’ll probably see our first Elegant Crested-Tinamous as they cross the road in front of the bus – by far the most obliging of the normally skulking tinamou family. The penguin colony is a reserve, but carefully roped-off walkways allow access into the colony providing superb viewing and photographic opportunities. In the bay beneath the colony should be a few Great Grebes in their attractive breeding plumage and it’s here that we’ll look for the Chubut Steamerduck, a recently-split species of very limited range. Southern Giant-petrels cruise back and forth offshore and a few pairs of Southern Skua scavenge amidst the penguin colony. In the afternoon we’ll drive north to the famous Valdez peninsula stopping en route at a colony of unique Burrowing Parrots, the only species in its genus. Night in Puerto Piramides.

Day 7: Starting early, we’ll visit the cliffs near our hotel and scan the bay for Southern Right Whales, a few of which are normally present and sometimes give stunning views. Blackish Oystercatchers may be feeding around the edge of the bay and South American Terns should be just offshore. After breakfast we’ll drive around the peninsula stopping en route to look for Darwin's Rheas, Tawny-throated Dotterels, Burrowing Owls, Guanacos, Patagonian Foxes, and bizarre Patagonian Hares (Maras). Our destination is Punta Norte, where the beaches will be littered with Southern Elephant Seals as well as a few South American Sea-lions. On rare occasions Orcas are seen cruising up and down off shore. Night in Puerto Piramides.

Day 8: Weather permitting, an optional whale-watching boat trip will be available this morning. For those who do not wish to experience this incredible opportunity to see the Southern Right Whales up close, there will be the option to return to the nearby desert areas to search for any species we may have missed yesterday. Following our departure from Puerto Piramides, we'll concentrate on the passerines that live in the dry scrub on the peninsula and will search for White-throated Cachalote, Scale-throated Earthcreeper, Plain-mantled Tit-Spinetail, Sharp-billed and Patagonian Canasteros, Rusty-backed Monjita, Gray-bellied and Lesser Shrike-Tyrants, Patagonian Mockingbird, Patagonian Yellow-Finch, and Carbonated Sierra-Finch. In the late morning we’ll drive to Puerto Madryn where we’ll have lunch and then we’ll visit another area of dry scrub on the edge of town looking for any species we missed this morning. In the late afternoon, we will enjoy the spectacle of thousands of waterbirds that are attracted to one of the few large areas of water in this part of Patagonia - the Trelew Sewage Ponds. Night in Trelew.

Day 9: This morning we’ll fly to El Calfate in southern Patagonia, where we’ll be based for a two-night stay. After checking in to our hotel we’ll visit the shores of nearby Lake Argentino to look for the delightful Magellanic Plover, a species in its own family, which pirouettes in the mud on bubblegum-pink legs. Other birds of interest are likely to include Chilean Flamingo, Cinereous Harrier, Crested Duck, Red Shoveler, Magellanic Oystercatcher, Two-banded Plover, and Least Seedsnipe. Night in El Calafate.

Day 10: We’ll spend the whole day visiting Los Glacieres National Park, and the Moreno Glacier, a vast tongue of ice slowly descending from the Andes into Lake Argentino. The Moreno Glacier has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is a major tourist destination in Argentina. We’ll visit the best viewpoint and watch chunks of ice falling off the glacier into the lake below with a tremendous crash. En route to the glacier we’ll pass through beautiful beech forests, open meadows and farmland, each home to a variety of birds, with highlights likely to include Black-faced Ibis, Ashy-headed Goose, Andean Condor, Cinereous Harrier, Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle, Austral Parakeet, Chilean Flicker, and the exotic Rufous-tailed Plantcutter. We also have our best chance here for the scarce Spectacled Duck. Night in El Calafate.

Day 11: After more local birding to search for Tawny-throated Dotterel and Chocolate-vented Tyrant, we’ll catch a flight to Ushuaia on the south side of Tierra del Fuego and adjacent to the spectacular Beagle Channel. Depending on the time of our flight we may walk around the harbour where Flightless Steamerducks and Dolphin Gulls are both tame and common and we’ll be able to study our first Kelp Geese and Chilean Skuas. Night in Ushuaia.

Day 12: We’ll spend the day in Tierra del Fuego National Park, a beautiful landscape of southern beech forests, lakes and rivers. Here we’ll mainly be concentrating on forest birds, hoping to see the magnificent Magellanic Woodpecker, Dark-bellied Cinclodes, White-throated Treerunner, Fire-eyed Diucon, Chilean Swallow, Austral Thrush, Tufted Tit-Tyrant, Black-chinned Siskin, Patagonian Sierra-Finch, and the delightfully entertaining Thorn-tailed Rayadito. Returning to town in the afternoon we may visit the local abattoir, a reliable site for White-throated Caracara, along with scores of gulls and skuas. Night in Ushuaia.

Day 13: This morning we’ll visit the Martial Glacier, just above the town. Our focus during the walk we will be searching for Yellow-bridled Finch, Ochre-naped and Dark-faced Ground-Tyrants.

In the afternoon, we’ll make a trip by boat down the Beagle Channel. This will essentially be a pelagic trip, though we’ll visit various islands inhabited by sea-lions and seabirds from time to time. Throughout the trip Black-browed Albatrosses will be continually in sight, as will giant-petrels and skuas. Magellanic Diving-petrels nest on the channel and we’ll flush them from the water as we cruise along, marvelling at their resemblance to the northern hemisphere Little Auks. We’ll stop at cormorant rookeries containing two different species, Blue-eyed and Rock, and will also encounter Dolphin Gulls, and South American Terns. We’ll stop at a Magellanic Penguin colony which, although small compared to that at Punto Tombo, attracts other species of penguin from time to time. In recent years a few pairs of Gentoos have nested here. In the evening we’ll cruise back up the Beagle Channel, marvelling once again at the magnificent scenery and wealth of seabirds. Night in Ushuaia.

Day 14: After breakfast we’ll drive across Tierra del Fuego through spectacular mountain scenery, of snow-capped peaks, forested slopes and glacial lakes. There are sites along the way for any of the species we might still be missing. Upon arriving in Rio Grande, we will stop on the edge of town to look for the elegant Rufous-chested Dotterel in the few remaining patches of original ‘tundra’ in this area. We will then drive to a large estancia searching for two rarities, Ruddy-headed Goose, the scarcest of the five Choephaga geese in Argentina, and Austral Canastero. Night in Rio Grande.

Day 15: This morning we’ll visit a cliff-nesting colony of Black-faced Ibis and in the grassy dunes near the beach will search for Short-billed Miner. If the tide is in, we will have the opportunity to observe the vast numbers of migrant Red Knots and other waders that winter here. After lunch we'll drive back to Ushuaia, with birding stops along the way, searching for any of the specialities of the region we may have missed on previous days, followed by a late afternoon flight to Buenos Aires. Night in Buenos Aires.

Day 16: We’ll spend the day visiting Otamendi Natural Reserve north of Buenos Aires, where we will search for Gilded Hummingbird, Checkered Woodpecker, Straight-billed and Curve-billed Reedhaunters, Diademed Tanager and Solitary Cacique as well as renew our acquaintance with other Pampas birds we will have seen earlier in our trip. In the evening those flying home today will be transferred to the airport and fly back via Madrid to London, where the tour concludes on Day 17. Those joining the tour to Iguazú will spend the night in Buenos Aires.

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Magellanic Woodpecker