Going to a new continent is always a really strange experience for a bird watcher. Suddenly he feels a novice again, green as grass without a clue what those birds are he sees. One can prevent this by studying hard, browsing though several bird books of the new area. However, I spent most of my time preparing for the Antarctic season and didn’t really pay much attention to what I could expect in Puerto Madryn, Argentina. So now here I am. Nearly every bird I see is completely new for me -I saw several House Sparrows and Feral Pigeons- and I don’t even know what is rare or common. It actually feels nice. Gives you a fresh idea on how to look at birds. And not having a bird guide with me, makes me look even better at the birds as I have to describe them so I can look them up later. And it also prevents me too look in the guide all the time, as ID’ing birds you have no clue about can be a very time consuming business.

So I have no idea what kind of bird this is. Up here it’s fairly common and not shy at all. This one, I assume a young individual, let me come close enough to let me take this picture. When I’m back at home I’ll have a look what species this is (or maybe I can read it in the comments underneath 😉 ).