Iguazu
Bird species- 63
After being overwhelmed by the mass of birdlife at Costanera
Sur we flew up to Iguazu (north Argentina near the border with Brazil). This
place made Buenos Aires seem cold! With afternoon temp of about 35 degrees c.
Our plan was to check out the big waterfall and surrounding
rainforest… after all it would be rude not to after travelling halfway across
the world.
The airport is little more than a strip cut out of the
forest and makes for quite an impressive landing. While travelling to our
b&b we started to wonder if going for the cheap option was a good idea as
the taxi proceeded to take massive rutted dirt tracks past wild dogs and the
like. Thankfully the B&B was lovely and the owner even spoke some English…
a god send!
We spent the next few days exploring the Argentinean side of
the national park. The main trails of the park were busy with tourists but the Macuco
trail was nice and quiet… arriving as soon as the park opened was best for
birding.
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| Red-rumped cacque |
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| Toco toucan |
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| Violaceous euphonia |
We also visited the Hummingbird garden in the town of Puerto
Iguazu where hummingbird feeders have been put up regularly for about 20 years.
For about £2 it is easy to see at least 5 species of hummingbird (that we could
ID). When we eventually located the garden we found that it was shut for the
morning (we had a flight in the afternoon… bugger!). Luckily we met an
Argentinean couple who persuaded the kind lady to let us enter and have an
exclusive visit.
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| Swallow-tailed hummingbird |
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| Black-throated mango |
While waiting to depart from Iguazu airport on our final
evening an almighty tropical thunderstorm broke out and our flight was
cancelled until the following morning. This meant a comfy night on the stone
floor of the airport. Every cloud has a silver lining though as this meant we
had time to check out the tropical moths attracted to the lights of the
airport. If anyone can help ID these bad boys it would be great.
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| Iguazu airport accom |
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| BIG moth |
Bird highlights at Iguazu included; Toco toucan, Linneated
and Robust Woodpeckers, Plumbeous and Snail Kites, Lesser woodcreeper, Swallow
tanager, Sayaca tanager, Black-goggled tanager, Violaceous euphonia, Ringed
kingfisher, Great-dusky swift, Yellow-headed caracara, Blue dacnis, Greater ani,
… the list goes on.
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| Tropical kingbird |
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| Great-dusky swift |
Other highlights included; Armadillo, Capuchin monkeys, Tegu lizard, Agouti, Coati and shed loads of amazing butterflies, moths and insects.
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| Tegu Lizard |
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| Capuchin monkey |
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| Armadillo |
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| Coati |
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| id? |
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| id? |
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| id? |
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| id? |
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