This week we arrived in Salta province, to the Los Cardones national park 3400 m up in the  high Andes.

It is springtime but at this  height it’s frosty at night with high 20s at midday.

The birds have just started to arrive in these inspiring mountains,  having spent winter much lower down.  In the autumn we watched  Andean Geese and Andean Flickers around Tafi del Valle at 2000 m.  These past few days we have seen them arrive into the magnificent Andean high grassland ecoregion called the Puna.

A few days ago there were no Andean Flickers around but overnight they have arrived. This morning we have seen a dozen or more in the Valle Encantado.  Individuals perched on prominent places such as large boulders and called incessantly to each other.

The Andean Flickers are great birds to see, however what is a woodpecker doing at this altitude, where there are no trees.  Simple, they feed on the ground,  eating ants and other tiny insects that they scoop up with long sticky tongues.