La Quiaca was the most northerly town we visited on this tour and on 13 October much of the day was spent driving back to Salta where the tour ended the following day. However, on the way south we made a detour from Tilcara up into the mountains to Garganta de Diablo (the Devil’s Throat) to see hummingbirds, and particularly the White-sided Hillstar. After some searching we were lucky enough to see this bird, but only managed to get a very distant photo of a female. Much easier to capture were the Giant Hummingbirds and Red-tailed Comets we saw on the slope. T
Continuing south we stopped briefly at a location beside the highway known to be good for Plumbeous Rail. Remarkably, after just a few calls the bird appeared and was close enough for us to get good photographs. T
For lunch we stopped at a restaurant overlooking the Laguna la Cienega, but before we ate we did some birding along the shore of the lake and photographed a few waterbirds and passerines. T
After lunch we continued our journey south down Route 9 and found a few new birds when we made a couple of stops
We ended the day by birding at the Dique Campo Alegre, which we’d visited a few days earlier. Cam
