Parque Nacional Calilegua protects around 76,000 hectares of east-slope yungas forest, making it the largest national park in northwestern Argentina. It would, therefore, feature prominently on our trip. Laura and I arrived in the general area during the afternoon of January 25, planning for three nights in the nearby city of Libertador General San Martin.
Because we are taking six weeks to explore the northern half of Argentina, we have the luxury to linger in an area for some extra time. Most birding groups spend two nights in this area, but we had the time and were happy to stay for three. In the end, we pushed our departure back a day due to a minor bout of food poisoning, so we actually spent four nights here. And this was just enough time to find almost every single one of our target birds, plus a whole lot more!
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| Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
January 25, 2023 (continued)
We found a decent hotel (Hotel del Ingenio) in a suburb just south of San Martin, located about thirty minutes from the park entrance gate. It was a hot and muggy afternoon and thunderstorms were darkening the skies in all directions. I did not let this dissuade me though, as there were lifers to be had in the park! Laura made the smart decision to take the rest of the afternoon off at the hotel, while I stupidly braved the elements. This part of Argentina receives more than its share of rain at this time of year, but I hoped for a large enough gap in the weather to fit some owling in. The Montane Forest Screech-Owl was the main target and it was supposedly common in the right habitats.
My afternoon started well as the rain held off just long enough for a short hike along the lower elevations of the road, a few kilometres past the park gate. Like almost everywhere we have visited in Argentina, park entry was free. The road traversing through the park is actually a public road that eventually reaches Humahuaco, though that is around a ten hour drive on the bumpy road. This means that there is some light traffic along the road, but not enough to really hinder birding opportunities.
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| Yellow-collared Macaw - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
Even in the gloomy conditions with a threat of rain, I turned up a few birds of note. The above Yellow-collared Macaw was a big highlight, while I also found my first Sick's Swifts and several Ochre-cheeked Spinetails.
I drove uphill to the better owling areas, but the evening started to go downhill as night fell. The rain started, and then it increased in intensity. It would lighten up just enough for me to think that a break in the weather was imminent, preventing me from turning the car around and calling it quits. Eventually, I was far enough up the road that I was committed. And so once I reached my destination I waited, and waited, and waited, as it poured and lightning flashed all around. There was no break in the weather.
Eventually, I realized that my endeavour was hopeless and so I started the long drive back down the mountain. But the fun was just getting started. I noticed some brake lights up ahead and quickly saw the problem - a large tree had fallen across the road, preventing any traffic from passing. The four occupants of the car - two brothers and their two adult sons - were already assessing the situation. Despite our cooperative efforts, the tree would not budge. We resorted to breaking off limbs, one by one, hoping that the remaining trunk would be more manoeuvrable. It was not.
Salvation came in the form of a machete, lent to us by a vehicle stuck on the other side of the roadblock. This expedited the process and within the hour we had chopped off enough boughs that the rest of the marred tree could be moved. Success!
I waved goodbye to the other guys and merrily began driving down the mountain in the rain, when I came across this sight, only five minutes later.
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| A minor roadblock - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
Luckily, this one was much more manageable. As the four muchachos and I were now experienced woodsmen, it only took us twenty minutes with the machete until we had cleared a path wide enough (barely) to squeeze a car past. And it was a very tight squeeze, with a sheer drop off on the other side. I white-knuckled it while fishtailing over the crushed boughs, just barely making it through the gap.
Luckily, there was no more brush-clearing to be done that evening and I made it back to the hotel by midnight. All I had to show for my owling adventure were a few cuts on my hands and some soaked and muddied clothing. Ah well, you win some, you lose some.
January 26, 2023
Luckily, those ill-advised nocturnal escapades were the low point of our Calilegua adventures. Well, perhaps the food-poisoning was...more on that in a bit. But January 26 was an excellent day, at least!
We mainly birded the lower elevations, finding many of the interesting birds that reside in these lush forests. The Yellow-collared Macaws were in the same area and we found the reason why - they had a nest here with an adult-sized chick inside.
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| Yellow-collared Macaw - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
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| Yellow-collared Macaws - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
Macaws nest in tree cavities, but they do not excavate their own (how could they, with that beak?). They instead rely on existing cavities, such as ones made by woodpeckers. Below is a family portrait with all three individuals. What a way for Laura to see her lifer Yellow-collared Macaws!
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| Yellow-collared Macaws - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
While checking out the macaws, we came across another birder exploring this section of the road - Jessie Williamson, an American who was doing a blitz of northwestern Argentina with a rental car after she had led a field course in Patagonia. We hit it off with her and birded together whenever our paths crossed along the road for the rest of the day.
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| Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
The birding was pretty great all morning long and Laura and I found a few other things of note - our first Great Rufous Woodcreepers, Green-cheeked Parakeets and Planalto Hermits, and a lot of other fantastic species like Orange-headed Tanager, Moss-backed Sparrow, Toco Toucan, White-tipped Swift, Swallow-tailed Manakin and King Vulture.
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| Great Rufous Woodcreeper - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
I don't usually find ducks perched in trees in the mountains. Behold, a wild Muscovy Duck.
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| Muscovy Duck - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
This impressive tarantula (Acanthoscurria) was in mid-scuttle across the road when we intersected its path.
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| Acanthoscurria sp. - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
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| Acanthoscurria sp. - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
A pair of Giant Antshrikes was a huge highlight for the three of us. Jessie was just up the road when Laura and I heard one singing so I hustled back to get her attention as it was one of her most-wanted species for the park. We were in for a show, as the male and female checked us out and the female sat out in the open for five minutes, singing back at us.
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| Giant Antshrike - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
With her tiger-striped back and rufous mohawk, she was the unanimous choice for most attractive of the two sexes.
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| Giant Antshrike - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
Toco Toucans are common in parts of northern Argentina, but that doesn't take away from how jaw-droppingly gorgeous they are. It's obvious why they are a top choice for murals and tourist brochures in this part of the world.
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| Toco Toucan - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
As always, I turned to insects during the mid-day doldrums when birding slowed. Here are a few that I photographed this day.
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| Soldier Grasshopper (Chromacris speciosa) - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
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| Thoas Swallowtail (Papilio thoas) - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
Jessie kept birding the road through the afternoon, while Laura and I were lazy birders that returned to the hotel for a siesta. We made plans, though, to meet up with Jessie in the evening for some owling. Hopefully, there would more more owls and less brush-clearing this time around.
Laura and I bought lunch in town that included a delicious salad (it's not always easy to find food that is not just deep fried meat and carbs here in Argentina). After our nap we returned to the road, feeling refreshed.
I noticed a very peculiar "stick" in the road that was holding one end up at a particular angle that looked rather snakey. I straddled the object and we were rather pleased to see that it was a snake, after all. It was a young Bothrops, that highly-venomous genus of viper that includes the famous Fer-de-Lance. This particular species is Bothrops diporus, the Painted Lancehead.
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| Painted Lancehead (Bothrops diporus) - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
Bothrops have a fearsome reputation and some people insist that they are hyper-aggressive, but that is simply not true in my experience. Sure, they don't like being cornered and will look for a way out, but they prefer being left alone and will rely on their camouflage to escape detection. They certainly don't chase people down and attack! This one was happy to scurry off the road, a good place for it to go.
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| Painted Lancehead (Bothrops diporus) - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
Unlike the previous evening, this night had perfect owling weather. It was calm and clear, with perfect listening conditions. We met up with Jessie and headed to the top of the road to begin our owling session.
And we hadn't even exited the car when Laura spotted our main target! She had somehow noticed this young Montane Forest Screech-Owl sitting on a fence post beside the road.
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| Montane Forest Screech-Owl - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
The baby soon flew off but we listened to its parents calling back and forth, along with a healthy dose of bill-clapping from the youngster(s). What a way to find a lifer owl!
The rest of the evening was just magical. While we didn't see a ton of owls, we heard many. Six species, to be exact. We noted Yungas Pygmy-Owl, Stygian Owl, Black-banded Owl and Spectacled Owl.
The sixth and final species was a nemesis bird of sorts for us: the Buff-fronted Owl. This species has eluded us in several locations, most recently in southern Peru. But we heard a pair of them calling back and forth to each other and managed to obtain good views of one individual! It was a little distant, though, and I blew my photos.
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| Buff-fronted Owl - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
We experienced some herp highlights as well. Jessie showed us a ditch where she had located breeding Yungas Red-bellied Toads earlier in the day. The breeding activities were still going strong.
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| Yungas Red-bellied Toads (Melanophryniscus rubriventris) - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
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| Yungas Red-bellied Toad (Melanophryniscus rubriventris) - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
Several other frog species were sharing the ditch with the Yungas Red-bellied Toads.
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| Rufous Four-eyed Frog (Pleurodema borellii) - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
We discovered a few more frogs on the drive back down the mountain as well as our second snake of the night. This species is
Paraphimophis rusticus, sometimes called the Brown Musurana.
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| Rioja Tree Frog (Boana riojana) - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
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| Brown Musurana (Paraphimophis rusticus) - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
Laura and I focused on the upper elevations of the road since one main target - the Blue-capped Puffleg - still eluded us. It was a beautiful overcast day and the birding was pretty active. We spent a few hours at a particularly birdy stretch of road.
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| Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
It took some time but I was eventually rewarded with a couple of brief views of a male puffleg. But that wasn't even the day's highlight. During a mid-morning break in the clouds, a hefty raptor with a distinctive silhouette soared overhead - a Solitary Eagle!
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| Solitary Eagle - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
This was only my second sighting of this magnificent species, following our lifer from along Manú Road last year. Solitary Eagles are fairly scarce in northwestern Argentina and I felt lucky that this one crossed paths with us.
Laura and I found a few more Yungas Red-bellied Frogs, giving me a chance at some natural light photos.
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| Yungas Red-bellied Toads (Melanophryniscus rubriventris) - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
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| Yungas Red-bellied Toads (Melanophryniscus rubriventris) - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
Laura noticed a dark shape glide into a tree, which morphed into a pair of Tucumán Parrots! As their name implies, this species is endemic to this ecoregion, and this was our last chance at them. A relief to finally catch up with them.
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| Tucumán Parrot - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
The Large-tailed Dove is another range-restricted species found on the east slope of the Andes in Bolivia and northwestern Argentina. We had heard this species on numerous occasions earlier in the trip, but this was our first time actually observing one.
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| Large-tailed Dove - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
The sun came out around lunchtime and several sun-loving species came out of the woodwork. I still need to figure out the lizard - this family, Gymnophthalmidae, can be quite tricky to identify since many of the species are poorly known.
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| Cercosaura sp. - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
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| Cybdelis petronita - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
Laura and I were feeling unusually tired and sluggish, which we attributed to being a little run down from the lack of sleep and lots of walking over the previous days. We quit birding early as neither of us really had the energy to keep going. Our conditions deteriorated throughout the afternoon and evening and it was apparent that we had come down with some sort of food poisoning. Luckily, it was a relatively mild bout, but it kept us out of commission for around 36 hours and forced us to spend an extra night in the hotel.
January 29, 2023
The previous day was a write-off and we only made one brief foray outside to pick up some soup from a grocery store. We happened to spot Laura's lifer Lined Seedeater on the drive, though!
On January 29 we checked out of the hotel and headed back into the park for one last kick of the can. Both of us were feeling a little weak still, but we had enough energy to do some easy birding.
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| Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
The morning was a smashing success since we managed to find our last remaining target at Calilegua - the Black-capped Antwren. I managed amazing photos of it too...I mean, you can tell that it is a bird, right?
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| Black-capped Antwren - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
We also enjoyed our best views yet of Ochre-cheeked Spinetail, while I also heard my first Gray-headed Elaenia singing.
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| Ochre-cheeked Spinetail - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
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| Ochre-cheeked Spinetail - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
I took the time to photograph a few butterfly species, while we also spent a few more moments with the Yellow-collared Macaw family.
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| Epinome Cracker (Hamadryas epinome) - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
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| Polydamas Swallowtail (Battus polydamas) - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
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| Yellow-collared Macaws - Parque Nacional Calilegua, Jujuy, Argentina |
Laura and I had loved exploring Parque Nacional Calilegua but it was finally time to move on towards our next destination. Our tour of the Andes in northwestern Argentina was over. Next up: the chaco.
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