Our journey on Tuesday 9 October took us north to the town of Yala in the Jujuy province of the country, with us making a pre-dawn start to catch the best of the birding. Our first stop was at a small road outside Salta where, despite the poor light, we got shots of Rufous-capped Antshrike, Moss-backed Sparrow and Yellowish Warbler.
We then drove north to Dique Campo Alegre lake to look for water birds and had good views of Fulvous-whistling-duck, Snowy Egret and White-winged Coot. In the wooded areas north of Salta we had our first views of Sooty-fronted Spinetail, a bird that has a wide range across eastern South America.
As we moved further north we drove along the winding Camino de Cornisa, which is a famous birding road through the Yungas forest near the boundary between the Salta and Jujuy provinces. We stopped several times along this road and were please to see birds such as the Sclater’s Tyrannulet, Azara’s Spinetail and Golden-crowned Warbler. We also got a shot of a Madyes Swallowtail, pre-dating our greater interest in photographing butterflies.
With the temperature rising in the middle of the day and the bird activity slowing down we had lunch in a town along the route before going birding in the Parque Provincial Lagunas de Yala, which is an area of Yungas forest. As the temperature dropped we had good sightings of Brown-capped Redstart, Highland Elaenia, Dusky-capped Flycatcher and many other species in this excellent birding area.
As the light started to fade we were lucky enough to see two species of Guan – the Red-faced and the Yugas.
We spent the night of 9 October at La Posta de Lozano, which is located on the western edge of the town of Lazano and a handy location for accessing the Parque Provincial Lagunas de Yala.
