I never imagined that Northern Argentina could rival the beauty of Patagonia in the south. Yet, as we drove alongside some of the most stunning mountains I’d ever seen, I found myself in awe—Northern Argentina was breathtakingly beautiful.
Most tourists visiting this remarkable country fly into Buenos Aires, the capital, and spend some time exploring there before heading south to the iconic landscapes of Patagonia. The northern regions, being so remote and far from the usual Argentinian travel routes, often don’t make it onto the itineraries of international visitors.
The Andes, South America’s main mountain range and home to the highest peaks on this side of the world, define the terrain in this part of Argentina. We were planning on birding some areas in the Andes. Yes, we had a 1 year old in tow. Over the course of a few days, we gradually climbed in elevation to help adjust and minimize any risk of altitude sickness. (Neither Ross nor I have ever had issues with high altitude, but we were mindful of Roger, who couldn’t yet tell us if he feels unwell.) Taking it slow also gave us time to enjoy the journey and check off some of our birding targets along the way.
Looking at the map, I was struck by just how far we were from Buenos Aires now. It was shocking to realize how much ground we’d covered—and how vastly different this part of the country felt.
One of the most remarkable things about the Andes is how you can turn a corner and be greeted with an entirely new and breathtaking view. Mountains are endlessly fascinating like that. I could quickly run out of adjectives to describe the scenery, so instead, here are a few photos along with brief notes about some of our many stops in the high Andes. (Though, as always, photos never quite do these places justice!)
1. Yala
We had a somewhat underwhelming afternoon here. We did see Andean Guan, but not much else. But we were birding along a beautiful stream. The rainbow colored rocks in the water were mesmerizing!
2. Purmamarca
We spent the night here after a somewhat underwhelming afternoon at Yala. Our hopes of spotting the elusive White-sided Hillstar were dashed by intense winds and a lack of flowers in the area. However, we did manage to see a Tucuman Grasswren, which was a small consolation.
The true star of the show, though, was the landscape. Our accommodations were nestled at the base of La Montaña de Siete Colores, or “The Seven-Colored Mountain,” one of the most stunning mountain scenes I’ve ever encountered. The mountains were alive with vibrant hues, their colors so striking and otherworldly that they seemed almost painted. It was absolutely mesmerizing, and as much as I’d love for these photos to capture their magic, they simply don’t do them justice. Being that this was also Argentina wine country, we couldn’t help but indulge and it was here that I had one of my most favorite wines of the whole trip. If we didn’t have hours of driving ahead of us, I would have happily stocked up on several bottles to take home!
2. La Laguna de Los Pozeulas
We came here to find our last remaining species of coot in the world. This high elevation lake ranges in size and is an important bird area with thousands upon thousands of birds using the habitat. As we walked out to the lake, the shore might as well have been pink with how many flamingos were standing in the water. Unfortunately it took many iterations of walk, scan, walk, scan, in order to finally find our target, Horned Coot, but still it was distant and the scope views still felt insufficient but unfortunately we couldn’t get any closer. Despite the coots being far away, we were entertained by countless flamingoes with over 5000 Chilean, 3000 Andean, and 2000 James’s Flamingoes. Other fun waterbirds included Wilson’s Phalaropes, Baird’s Sandpipers, Andean Avocet, Puna Plover, Andean Goose, and Giant Coot.
On the walk/drive in we saw Lesser Rhea, Golden-spotted Ground Dove, Puna Miner, and Bright-rumped Yellow-Finch. We attempted to visit a nearby lake that is much smaller to potentially get closer views of Horned Coot, but that lake was completely dry so we had to settle with no photo and distant views.
3. Yavi
At this point in our trip we might as well have been in Bolivia. The small dusty town of Yavi itself isn’t anything to write home about, but at our accommodation for the night, a quaint homestay in the tiny town, we had a completely homemade meal of quinoa salad, llama raviolis, and torta Balcarce for dessert. The food however was something to write home about! So good!
A group of friends, mostly doctors and other medical professionals, who were doing a tour of the area on their motorcycles, stayed at the same homestay as us. They insisted we share some of the Argentinian wine they brought. I was loving travelling through wine country! (Plus we saw Citron-headed Yellow Finch and Aplomado Falcon from the nearby schoolyard so there’s that!)
4. Quebrada Lizoite
Just past the small Argentine town of Yavi is a road up the mountain. This was going to be the highest elevation we ventured in all of Argentina. We crested the pass at 4550m (14,928 ft)!! To everyone thinking well that seems awfully high to take a baby, you aren’t wrong. We didn’t want to be up here too long so even though walking around the high elevation bog was soooo enjoyable, we decided not to spend much time here and get back down in elevation just in case our baby was experiencing any elevation sickness. (In case anyone is wondering, no he wasn’t acting strange or crying. In fact he was as happy as ever. But just out of an abundance of caution, we didn’t want to risk it any more than we already had!)
Our main target here was Red-backed Sierra Finch and luckily we had that in the bag before even stopping the car. During our short hike we hoped to see Diademed Sandpiper Plover, but it wasn’t meant to be. Fortunately we’ve seen Diademed Sandpiper Plover before. Instead we entertained ourselves with a smorgasbord of ground-tyrants including Puna, Cinereous, Ochre-naped, and our target lifer, the Black-fronted Ground-Tyrant.
This was a one-way route for us, meaning we drove up north and then took the same route back again. Going from one direction and then coming back from the other provides a completely different perspective and I’m just glad we got to drive through the mountains a second time as we worked our way back.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the time Ross had an impromptu game of “high five” with an oncoming car. The roads in this part of Argentina are often winding, and in many areas, they’re quite narrow. With all the driving we’d been doing, I suppose an incident was bound to happen sooner or later.
We were cruising along as usual when suddenly, SMACK! A loud noise echoed through the car. It turns out you don’t fully appreciate just how narrow the roads are until your side-view mirror collides with the side-view mirror of an oncoming vehicle. Needless to say, this wasn’t the kind of “high five” anyone enjoys.
This birding occured on October 5th-7th, 2023
Here’s an eBird checklist from Laguna de los Pozuelos (here) and Quebrada Lizoite (here)