Birding in northern Patagonia
Argentina
Region
Patagonia
Season
October to March
Duration
9 days from Neuquén
Briefing
Day 1: Arrive to Neuquén. Birding in a botanical formation exclusive to Argentina: the “Monte”, a semi-arid desert with many species of thorny bushes.
Day 2: Drive to Piedra del Águila, in a transitional area between the Monte and the Patagonian steppes. Visit Santa Teresa Wildlife Refuge.
Day 3: Explore the Patagonian steppes and the Collón Curá Valley.
Days 4 & 5: Lanín National Park and its forests.
Day 6: Cross to Chile for birding in Puyehue National Park.
Day 7: Visit Bahía Mansa and Maicolpué, on the Pacific Ocean in search of marine birds.
Day 8: Take a boat ride in Pucatrihué for observing colonies of marine birds. Afternoon return to Bariloche, in Argentina.
Day 9: Transfer to the airport.
Tour description
We invite you to explore the different contrasting habitats of Northern Patagonia, from the steppes in Argentin to the Pacific Ocean in Chile, including the Monte (a thorny-bushy formation endemic to Argentina), the Andean Range and the Valdivian forests, combining different locations and protected areas of Argentina and Chile where you will observe numerous lifers and endemic species from these habitats.
We will start in Neuquén, where in the bushy steppe we will spot Darwin's rheas, elegant-crested tinamous, lesser rheas, burrowing parrots, red-backed hawks, Patagonian canastero, common diuca finch, tufted tit-tyrant, rusty-backed monjitas, rufous-tailed plantcutters and long-tailed meadowlarks, among many others.
Later we will visit the Patagonian beech forests and the Valdivian rainforest in search of different species of endemic tapaculos as the chucao and the black-throated huet-huet, Magellanic woodpeckers, Austral parakeets, white-crested elaenias, rufous-tailed hawks, and Des Mur’s wiretails. Finally, on the south Pacific coast we will observe Magellanic and Humboldt penguins, rock and red-legged cormorants, Chilean pelicans, Magellanic oystercatchers, and many migratory species of plovers and sandpipers from North America.