Puerto Madryn Cruise-Ship Birding Excursion

Cruise‑Ship Birding Shore Tour
Half‑day endemic highlights from Puerto Madryn

On this birding tour, we’ll explore a diverse array of habitats including beaches, cliffs, canyons, lagoons and monte-steppe areas. The route crosses the transitional zone between the Monte Desert and Patagonian Steppe ecoregions, providing varied vegetation and habitats ideal for observing a wide range of birdlife.

We’ll focus especially on Argentina’s endemic, near-endemic, and endemic-breeding species such as Patagonian Canastero, White-throated Cacholote, Carbonated Sierra-Finch, Rusty-backed Monjita and Band-tailed Earthcreeper. A highlight species we particularly seek is the Elegant Crested-Tinamou, a beautiful terrestrial bird featured in our logo.

Within the shrub-steppe habitat we’ll carefully search for Greater Wagtail-Tyrant, Shrike-Tyrants, Tufted and Yellow-billed Tit-Tyrants, Straneck’s Tyrannulet, scarce White-banded Mockingbird, Burrowing Owl, Plain-mantled Tit-Spinetail, Long-tailed Meadowlark and other canasteros such as the Sharp-billed.

At specific canyon sites we’ll look for specialised birds including Magellanic Horned Owl and Scale-throated Earthcreeper.

We’ll visit Punta Loma Wildlife Reserve, just a short drive from Puerto Madryn, home to a permanent colony of South American Sea Lions. The reserve hosts nesting Magellanic Cormorants and Kelp Gulls, often easily observed. With luck, we may also encounter the less common Snowy Sheathbill and Dolphin Gull, both closely associated with the sea-lion colony. Pebble beaches frequently host American and occasionally Blackish Oystercatchers, while an interpretive trail provides opportunities to observe terrestrial birds such as Patagonian Mockingbird, Diuca Finch and Rufous-collared Sparrow.

In nearby lakes and ponds we’ll look for Chilean Flamingos, swans, ducks and grebes (including Great and Silvery Grebes). Additional possible sightings include phalaropes, stilts, Crested Duck, Flying Steamer-Duck, Giant Petrels, herons and plovers such as the Two-banded Plover, which breeds locally.

Other birds frequently seen during the tour include Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Chalk-browed Mockingbird, martins, swallows, Straneck’s Tyrannulet, White-tipped Plantcutter, Black-headed Duck and raptors such as Cinereous Harrier and Chimango Caracara.