Paula scans for birds in the northern Monte desert of Salta Province, Argentina, one of the wonderful south American eco-regions and only found in Argentina.

 60% of Argentina is classified as ‘arid’ and these arid lands are considered to be the Puna, a cold steppe desert at a high altitude in the Andean mountains, Patagonia which is a cold steppe of low altitude and the Monte which is  a warm shrub desert. As these arid lands are sandwiched between the hot steamy Neotropics  and the Antarctic,  they are very important for bird distribution and endemism in South America.

This is one of our camps near to Lake Diamante in Mendoza Province, at a height of 2300m it represents the limit between the Monte and Puna eco-regions, at such a height it is sometimes referred to as the pre-puna.

Grey-headed Sierra-finch

Black-hooded Sierra Finch

Mourning Sierra-finch.  The Sierra-finches are a genus of Andean seed-eating birds closely related to the North American Tanagers. They forage on the ground and these tree species are widely distributed across the length of the Monte.

The Straight-billed Earthcreeper is a widely distributed but little known, it is rather secretive, scuttling around rocky crevices in search of insects.

One of the great birding highlights of the Monte is the possibility of locating the biggest hummingbird in South America, the Giant Hummingbird.

We have travelled  well over one thousand kilometres through the Monte and only found one area, in Salta Province, where they were to be seen. On this occasion though we observed courting pairs and witnessed ‘aerial duels’ between several males.  These duels were ignited when one male  strayed into the territory of another.  The defending male would circle the other male and both would rise upwards into the heavens, each facing each other and using their long bill in a manner that resembled sword-fighting.

Tinamous are only found in South America and belong to one of the most ancient of bird families the Ratites, whose giant relatives ranged over this land  during the Miocene  period, when the earth was much warmer and arid lands were advancing over forested landscapes..  This is the Elegant-crested Tinamou and is typical of the family with cryptic camouflaged plumage.

 The Red-shouldered Hawk is one of the top predators of the Monte.

 We will be spending more time in the Monte over the next few months, there are so many hidden valleys and mountain ranges to try to visit.