February 4, 2023
For our second day in Misiones, Laura and I ventured over to a small park only a half-hour drive from our accommodations in Posadas. Our main reason for visiting Parque Provincial Cañadón de Profundidad was to search for Creamy-bellied Gnatcatcher, of which there were recent records, but the site also seemed to hold a variety of other novel species for us.
Our early arrival meant that the gates had not yet opened, but we had read that this shouldn't be a problem. I parked near the gates and walked in, eager to see what bird life awaited.
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| Cañadon de Profundidad, Misiones, Argentina |
The park is rather small but it contains two short loop trails which travel next to a little watercourse for part of their distance. By walking very slowly as us birders usually do, we spent almost four hours in the park. The best part was that we had the place to ourselves. Just us and the birds.
Unfortunately, we dipped on the gnatcatchers but we found many other new species for us. A female Black-goggled Tanager met us near the entrance. And while we would undoubtedly see many more of this widespread species, we enjoyed the close views of this one.
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| Black-goggled Tanager - Cañadon de Profundidad, Misiones, Argentina |
The Southern Bristle-Tyrant occurs in relatively low densities and can be difficult to connect with so we were pleased to find a pair consorting over the creek.
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| Southern Bristle-Tyrant - Cañadon de Profundidad, Misiones, Argentina |
A Rufous-breasted Leaftosser chattered away, while we enjoyed nice views of our first Rufous Gnateater, Swallow-tailed Manakin (a young male) and White-spotted Woodpecker. Spot-backed Antshrikes and Rufous-capped Spinetails were heard and not seen, but we would have plenty of time in the upcoming weeks to correct that.
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| Rufous Gnateater - Cañadon de Profundidad, Misiones, Argentina |
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| Swallow-tailed Manakin - Cañadon de Profundidad, Misiones, Argentina |
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| White-spotted Woodpecker - Cañadon de Profundidad, Misiones, Argentina |
Below are two Lepidopterans that I photographed: the local subspecies of the Common Morpho (Morpho helenor achillides), and a huge sphinx moth called the Streaked Sphinx (Protambulyx strigilis).
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| Common Morpho (Morpho helenor achillides) - Cañadon de Profundidad, Misiones, Argentina |
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| Streaked Sphinx (Protambulyx strigilis) - Cañadon de Profundidad, Misiones, Argentina |
Laura and I continued east towards our ultimate destination of Puerto Iguazú. We broke up the drive by investigating a little sideroad where other birders had found Large-tailed Antshrikes and White-shouldered Fire-eyes.
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| Santa Ana area, Misiones, Argentina |
This was a productive venture, though both species remained largely out of sight while they called back at us from the undergrowth. The only birds that I photographed here were this female Ruby-crowned Tanager and a Blue-naped Chlorophonia.
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| Ruby-crowned Tanager - Santa Ana area, Misiones, Argentina |
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| Blue-naped Chlorophonia - Santa Ana area, Misiones, Argentina |
February 6, 2023
Iguazú Falls is one of the most magnificent waterfall systems in the world. With a height of 82 m, it is significantly taller than Niagara Falls, while Jog Falls in India (253 m) and Kaieteur Falls in Guyana (226 m) are much taller. What makes Iguazú so spectacular is its massive flow of water combined with impressive width of the waterfall system. Iguazú is divided into roughly 275 individual flows spanning 2.7 km; an incredible sight.
Laura and I typically avoid touristy places (with few exceptions, we simply don't like other people that much!), and Iguazú Falls is the most popular tourist destination in Argentina and Brazil, perhaps even challenging Machu Picchu for the South American title. But Iguazú Falls was a must-visit site for us, and we chose February 6 as the day for our visit.
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| Chestnut-bellied Seed-Finch - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
Of course, there is more to see than just the waterfalls and so we planned to spend the morning birding one of the park's trails. This way, we could maximize the relative cool of the morning, as well as enjoy the forest before too many tourists showed up. The "best" birding trail at Iguazú is called the Macuco Trail. It traverses various forest habitats for around 3.5 kilometres before terminating at a lookout over the river downstream from Iguazú Falls.
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| Macuco Trail - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
The foot traffic was relatively tolerable and we enjoyed a birdy couple of hours. An early highlight was a pair of Plain-winged Woodcreepers, our first.
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Plain-winged Woodcreeper - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina
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Our lifer Blond-crested Woodpecker was another highlight, though it disappeared before I could imprint its likeness onto my memory card. Some of the other birds we encountered were Greater Ani, Ochre-breasted and White-eyed Foliage-gleaners, Fuscous Flycatcher, Southern Antpipit and Saffron-billed Sparrow.
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| Greater Ani - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
Laura was up to her usual tricks; that is, spotting a day-roosting potoo. And this time, the Common Potoo was snuggled up with a baby!
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| Common Potoos (adult and young) - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
Common Potoos nest by laying a single egg at the top of a dead snag or in a crevice of a branch. After hatching, they will brood the baby for roughly six weeks or until it is fully independent. This was the first time that we had ever seen a young potoo with its parent.
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| Common Potoos (adult and young) - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
And Laura wasn't done with spotting awesome birds; she also located this Pearly-breasted Cuckoo near the end of the trail. Pearly-breasted Cuckoo is a rather rare breeding species in Argentina, with most records occurring in northeastern Misiones province, and it was a new species for us.
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| Pearly-breasted Cuckoo - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
The walk back was a little bit less birdy, not unexpected given the time of day. We checked in on the potoos while I also spent a lot of time photographing butterflies.
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| Red Postman (Heliconius erato) - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
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| Lychnuchoides ozias - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
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| Malachite (Siproeta stelenes) and Blue-frosted Banner (Catonephele numilia) - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
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| Common Blue-Skipper (Quadrus cerialis) - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
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| Red Rim (Biblis hyperia) - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
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| Notheme erota - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
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| Orange Banner (Temenis laothoe) - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
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| Harmonia Tigerwing (Tithorea harmonia) - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
We visited several viewpoints of the falls for the remainder of the day. Even though the water level was relatively low, and some of the "best" viewing platforms were unaccessible, it was a spectacular sight.
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| Iguazú Falls - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
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| Iguazú Falls - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
We even spotted a few birds including our lifer Maroon-bellied Parakeets, right at the edge of the falls!
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| Maroon-bellied Parakeet - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
I attempted a few photos of various bird species with the falls in the background. This was pretty tricky as I was limited to my fixed-length telephoto lens.
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| White-eyed Parakeets - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
Can you spot the Snail Kite?
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| Snail Kite - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
The tourists on the Brazil side seemed to have a pretty epic view of the falls.
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| Iguazú Falls - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
One bird that we did not see at Iguazú Falls was the Great Dusky Swift. This species nests here, and they can often be seen roosting near the lip of the falls or flying around in big flocks. Unfortunately, I completely forgot that I should be searching for this species here, only remembering when we were almost back at the car. Shoot! There were definitely no swifts flying around (we would have noticed that, I would hope), but maybe we missed a shot at finding the roosting birds.
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| Dynamine tithia - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
One of the more interesting species we found during the afternoon was this Williams' Side-necked Turtle (Phrynops williamsi) that was happily basking below the metal walkway, only a few meters from hundreds of passersby.
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| Williams' Side-necked Turtle (Phrynops williamsi) - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
This highly aquatic turtle prefers rocky-bottomed streams in its limited range, which includes parts of southern Brazil, northeastern Argentina, and southern Paraguay.
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| Williams' Side-necked Turtle (Phrynops williamsi) - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
You may be wondering what those strange, white growths are on the turtle's chin. Many species of freshwater turtles have tubercles, some which are more obvious than others. These are a sensory organ that likely assist the turtle with finding prey in murky waters.
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| Williams' Side-necked Turtle (Phrynops williamsi) - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
I'll finish this post with another reptile. We didn't exactly find this Giant Parrot Snake on our own; rather, we found a crowd of people excitedly pointing up into a tree. Giant Parrot Snakes have a widespread distribution in Central and South America. As you can imagine, they do quite well in trees where they hunt for lizards, frogs, birds and other arboreal species.
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| Giant Parrot Snake (Leptophis ahaetulla) - Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina |
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