Terra Incognita

Discover Ethical Ecotours

  • Ecotours
    • Search Ecotours
    • Top Ecotour Lists
  • Updates
    • Latest Updates
    • Newsletter
    • Travel Blogger of the Year 2020
      • Winners
      • Prizes & Sponsors
      • Meet the Judges
      • Entries
    • The Wildlife Blog Collection 2019
  • Ecotourism Jobs
    • Ecotourism Jobs
    • How to get a Conservation Job
  • About
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Affiliate Sign-up
  • JOIN
  • LOGIN
Top Menu
  • Ecotours
    • Search Ecotours
    • Top Ecotour Lists
  • Updates
    • Latest Updates
    • Newsletter
    • Travel Blogger of the Year 2020
      • Winners
      • Prizes & Sponsors
      • Meet the Judges
      • Entries
    • The Wildlife Blog Collection 2019
  • Ecotourism Jobs
    • Ecotourism Jobs
    • How to get a Conservation Job
  • About
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Affiliate Sign-up
  • JOIN
  • LOGIN
Paraguay | Paraguay Birding & Nature Tours | Birds and Fauna of Paraguay, Wildlife in the Heart of South America.

Paraguay | Paraguay Birding & Nature Tours | Birds and Fauna of Paraguay, Wildlife in the Heart of South America.

Top Birding Ecotours
0 Reviews
Add Photos
Write a Review

Highlights

* This tour covers 6 of the main ecosystems of Paraguay.

* We have the possibility to observe more than 400 species of birds, many of them endemic to their corresponding ecosystems.

* We visit and collaborate on 3 excellent projects of Nature Conservation and Sustainable Development.

* We will know the most biodiverse Natural Reserves of Paraguay.

* This fantastic tour also gives us enormous possibilities for observing mammals in addition to amphibians and reptiles.

Overview

This 20-days tour covers almost all of Paraguay and focuses on observing the fantastic birds and wildlife in the Heart of South America, encompasses the vast majority of ecosystems, ranging from the Humid Chaco, the Dry Chaco, the Cerrado, the Mesopotamian Grassland and the Atlantic Forest endemic and is rich in species. We will have the opportunity to search to put many specialties on our list. Like the “Targets 10” of Chaco – Chaco Owl, Quebracho Crested Tinamou, Brushland Tinamou, Chaco Chachalaca, Scimitar-billed Woodcreeper, Crested Gallito, Black-bodied Woodpecker, Black-legged Seriema, Chaco Earthcreeper and Spot-winged Falconet, besides other exceptional species, among them the world-threatened White-winged Nightjar, of which only 4 spots are known in the world, 2 of them in Paraguay! The Helmeted Woodpecker, Stranged-tailed and Cock-tailed Tyrants, plus a number of interesting and rare doraditos and seedeates, including the recently described new species; the Ibera Seedeater. This trip offers you to go to the heart of South America, continent of the birds!, and in addition to the great diversity of birds, Paraguay is probably the country where you have the possibility of seeing the largest amount of mammals of the neotropic, with the 2 spectacular species of anteaters (Giant and Tamandua), 8 feline species, including Puma and Jaguar, the three South American peccaries, the Lowland Tapir, the Maned Wolf and several species of deer, armadillos, monkeys and rodents. And of course an innumerable amount of fabulous reptiles, amphibians, insects, forests, orchids, bromeliads, ferns and the geography and fantastic ecosystems where they live and accompany us throughout this small piece of Paradise!

Program Summary

Day 1 – ARRIVAL IN ASUNCIÓN. Please book flights to arrive in Asunción during this day. If time allows, we will visit the wetlands and shores of the Bahia Asunción. Overnight in Asunción.

Day 2 – ASUNCIÓN, ARROYOS Y ESTEROS BIRDING ON TO CERRADO OF RIO VERDE. Early in the morning, we will go birding in the Arroyos y Esteros area, hoping for many waterbirds but also some rare and unusual flycatchers. The target bird is the Strange-tailed Tyrant. We will continue to Reserva Natural Rio Verde after lunch, and we certainly will try for our first specialties such as: Cook-tailed Tyrant, White-rumped Tanager, White-banded Tanager, Sharp-tailed Tyrant, Giant Snipe and White-winged Nightjar among others. Overnight in Santa Rosa del Aguaray.

Day 3 – RESERVA NATURAL RIO VERDE – MBARACAYÚ RESERVE. We have other chances during this morning in this fantastic reserve. We will drive during the afternoon in order to maximize our time at the Mbaracayu Reserve. Lunch on the way to Mbaracayu Reserve. Overnight in Mbaracayu Reserve.

Day 4 – TO MBARACAYÚ RESERVE. We will take the trails near the Lodge, which usually hold great surprises. Overnight in Mbaracayu Reserve. Early in the morning we will go to the center of the reserve, the place is known as Lagunita and then we will walk on the trail called Moroti Stream, we will take a picnic lunch, and then we will go to the Cerrado Area called Aguara Ñu, we will be all afternoon and part of the night looking for the specialties of the place, this will be our second chance to look for the White-winged Nightjar. Overnight in Mbaracayu Reserve.

Day 5 – MBARACAYÚ RESERVE. In the morning we will go to the northeast of the reserve, The Carapa Falls is a spectacular falls in the jungle; you will never forget this magical place . Overnight in Mbaracayu Reserve.

Day 6 – MBARACAYÚ RESERVE AND DRIVE TO SAN RAFAEL NATIONAL PARK.  The drive to San Rafael will take all day. We will leave early and have lunch on the road. If at all possible, we will look for birds once we arrive in the afternoon. Overnight in San Rafael.

Day 7 – ESTANCIA NUEVA GAMBACH; PARQUE NACIONAL SAN RAFAEL. Birding in the forests and grasslands of San Rafael. Overnight in San Rafael.

Day 8 – ESTACIÓN KANGUERY GRASSLANDS. We will concentrate on grassland birding today, hoping for Cook-tailed Tyrant and Saffron-cowled Blackbirds as well as after dark Giant Snipe and some very interesting owls. Overnight in San Rafael.

Day 9 – ESTANCIA NUEVA GAMBACH. We will spend the day on other trails of the reserve. Overnight in San Rafael.

Day 10 – ESTANCIA NUEVA GAMBACH TO YACYRETA ISLAND. After some morning birding, depending on what species we have yet to see, we will depart for Ayolas. Overnight in Ayolas

Day 11 – YACYRETA ISLAND  TO YBYCUI NATIONAL PARK. Early in the morning we will take the Aguti Trail on the Island and then we will start to go to the Ybycui National Park. Overnight in Ybycui

Day 12 – YBYCUI NATIONAL PARK TO ASUNCION. We will spend a day in this very interesting National Park. Overnight in Asuncion.

Day 13 – HUMID CHACO. We will cross the Paraguay River and begin our drive west towards the region of Loma Plata, known for its history as a settlement of Russian Mennonites fleeing the Soviet Union in the 1930s. This is also the gateway to the Gran Chaco. We will bird our way through the humid Chaco on our way to the west. Overnight in Loma Plata.

Day 14 – LAGUNA CAPITAN AND CHACO LODGE PRIVATE RESERVE. Our birding of the Dry Chaco begins today. We will visit some saline lakes as well as Chaco woodlands and will make sure to try some mammal-watching at night. Overnight in Loma Plata.

Day 15 – FORTIN TOLEDO, PARQUE NACIONAL TENIENTE ENCISO. We will have a full day to bird and visit a breeding facility for the Chaco Peccary today. Overnight in Proyecto Tagua – Fortin Toledo.

Day 16 – TENIENTE ENCISO NATIONAL PARK. A final full day of birding in the Dry Chaco. Overnight in Teniente Enciso National Park. Early in the morning, if we have not found most of our Chaco specialties by now, Teniente Enciso National Park will hopefully make up the difference as this is a key place for the rarer Chaco birds. Overnight in  Teniente Enciso National Park.

Day 17 – TENIENTE ENCISO NATIONAL PARK, RETURN TO NEULAND. This gives us a chance to move at a more leisurely pace and hopefully find the last of the Chaco specialties. Overnight in Neuland.

Day 18 –  NEULAND. Early in the morning we will go to the Selva Serena Reserve to have another chance to see the specialties of the chaco . Overnight in Neuland.

Day 19 – RETURN TO ASUNCIÓN.  We will have a day to make our way back towards the southeast and we will make sure to stop and enjoy some birding and scenery as we head to Asunción for our final dinner together. Overnight in Asunción.

Day 20 – END OF YOUR TOUR EXPERIENCE. Final departure.

Photo Gallery

Ethics

At Terra Incognita we support tours that do good in the world. They must help conserve the environment, support local people and provide educational opportunities for guests and staff, or be actively working to improve in these areas.

What conservation activities do you support through the tour, and your wider operations?

During this tour we will visit 4 sites that have very important projects of Nature Conservation and Sustainable Development:
- The Mbaracayu Forest Reserve: This Reserve managed by the Moises Bertoni Foundation, conserves 64,000 hectares of the Atlantic Forest, one of the most biodiverse forests in the world. In the place there is also an Agricultural and Ecotourism School for women that is doing a really exceptional job for the empowerment of rural women and environmental education in the buffer areas of the reserve
- Procosara: Visiting Estancia Nueva Gambach we collaborate with this NGO that is doing an impressive job to conserve the San Rafael National Park and its incredible Biodiversity.
- Guyra Reta Natural Reserve: Here the Guyra Paraguay Association conserves more than 15,000 hectares of a very important natural grassland and an important remnant of the Inner Atlantic Forest of an inesurable biological value, with our visit we help the conservation of this very valuable site.
-We also visited The Taguá Project. This project began in November 1985 through an agreement between The Zoological Society of San Diego (USA), the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Py) and the Peace Corps of the United States of America; with the intention of starting a research project and captive breeding of the Taguá (Catagonus wagneri) due to the alarming decline of the then very little known and newly discovered species. Recently, the Taguá Project ceased to be a project to become the Chaco Center for Conservation and Research (CCCI), a non-profit association established in 2010 with the aim of continuing and expanding captive breeding, conservation, health and sustainable development of Paraguay with emphasis on the Chaco region.

How does the tour support local people?

All these projects employ residents around the areas that are preserved. In addition, in some of them we hire local guides, we buy inputs from the areas we visit that generate genuine income for local people.

What type of environmental education activities do you incorporate into your tour?

Our guides are experts in their subjects, in addition to passionate teachers, the entire libretto of our guides and the way to do it aim to connect our visitors with the natural and cultural environment, we use the environmental interpretation as a pedagogical tool, where we immerse people through first-person experience with geology, biology, anthropology and other sciences that connect us and make us see the essential from the rational. There is no better educational experience than confronting the learning objects in their ecosystems, this connects us with the 5 senses and makes this experience unique and unforgettable.

Do you provide any additional conservation, community or educational benefits through your wider operations that you’d like to mention?

We have turned our social responsibility towards environmental education and we offer free environmental talks about the species of animals that inhabit Paraguay in order to generate environmental awareness and to communicate and raise awareness about the environmental problems of our country in schools, colleges, universities, companies, state offices, NGOs and civil associations. We organize our logistics decreasing our plastic consumption and our CO2 footprint as much as possible.

We work and cooperated with different organizations, governmental, NGOs, private owners, companies as well as committed people  in sustainable development and conservation. We visit and work with people and places that have our same philosophy of conservation of nature.

We are convinced that Science and all the data that it generates must be of public access and on each trip we find very interesting records. For this reason we share all the information that we generate on our trips on the website www.pybio.org and collaborate with several scientific web pages and share our information with NGOs, the public sector and people and institutions in general to which our photographs and audio recordings can be used. We also support citizen science projects such as the Ebird platform:  https://ebird.org/home. We promote with our customers, friends and our entire society the use of eBird so that we can all contribute to the concept of "Citizen Science". For this we upload our lists to this important database and if you take a tour with us we can share it with pleasure to your account of Ebird or the Email that you indicate to us.

Certificates

We have several projects that have been recognized as important for Tourism, Education and Nature Conservation, some of them have been issued by the Ministry of Tourism of Paraguay, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and the Ministry of Education. In addition, some NGOs and local schools have recognized us for our work in training and environmental education.

Top 5 achievements

*Our years of field experience, having shared field trips with hundreds of professionals and clients who have already traveled around the world, in addition to having read all the existing scientific rigor materials about the use of playback to date, the photography of nature and recording fauna in general etc, has helped us to form our own ethics, which we would like to share with you: We offer an authentic experience and as naturally as possible to observe wildlife in their habitat, we minimize the use of playback, powerful artificial lights, flash and other gadgets to attract and photograph the fauna in general and if necessary we limit the time of use to what is strictly required so that both the experience of the observer and the animal observed, are pleasant and beneficial for both. Therefore, we do not touch, grab or manipulate animals in our tours because of the enormous stress that this generates in them (have you ever thought about what you would feel if a "giant animal" took you in their hands?), we do not dazzle them or use flash because it can be dangerous for the animal and we maintain prudent distance from nests and mating sites, etc.

* With our study travel project we have already taken more 8,000 young people to travel throughout Paraguay where the pedagogical transversal axis of them are Ecology and Environmental Education, this has allowed us to bring first level education to a huge amount of young people.

* We have given free environmental talks about birds, mammals, reptiles and plants of Paraguay in more than 20 schools in Paraguay.

* We help the sustainable tourism development of some of the main Ecotourism sites in Paraguay with training, technical advice and leading our tourists to generate genuine economic income.

 

 

Rate & Write a Review

Cancel reply

Company Name

Desarrollo Turístico Paraguayo S.A.

Logo

About Company

We are a pioneering company in birding, wildlife and general nature ecotourism and photography safaris in Paraguay. We are located in Asunción, the capital of this beautiful country in the heart of South America. Importantly, we are passionate observers of birds and wildlife, and have turned this passion into a company specializing in Nature and Wildlife Tourism since 2003.

Our Mission

Offer the best experience of bird watching, nature and wildlife tours for people who enjoy watching animals in their natural ecosystems, custom-made in a professional manner.

Our Vision

To approach people in an experiential and didactic way to observe the wild fauna in its natural state, making them aware of the biodiversity that the world shares with us and that experience will return to the people committed to the conservation of all life forms of our wonderful planet.

Our specialized guides allow us to organize tours of specific interests such as: observation of mammals, butterflies, moths, dragonflies, amphibians and reptiles, palms, bromeliads and orchids, and much more! We love to show off our fauna and flora to those who visit us. Our guides are professionals with extensive field experience and above all are keen observers, an essential trait that inspires our clients.

Our company was built by people who love nature. Our philosophy is to generate sustainable tourism to promote and protect our natural resources and culture.

We have turned our social responsibility towards environmental education and we offer free environmental talks about the species of animals that inhabit Paraguay in order to generate environmental awareness and to communicate and raise awareness about the environmental problems of our country in schools, colleges, universities, companies, state offices, NGOs and civil associations. We organize our logistics decreasing our plastic consumption and our CO2 footprint as much as possible.

We work and cooperated with different organizations, governmental, NGOs, private owners, companies as well as committed people  in sustainable development and conservation. We visit and work with people and places that have our same philosophy of conservation of nature.

Tour Website

Click to visit the tour website

Cost

Check our prices by sending us an email. We will find a way to adapt them to your possibilities.

Group size

Group Size: We recommend 8 people maximum.

+595 981 607006
oscar@paraguay-birding-nature.com
www.paraguay-birding-nature.com

Business Social Profiles

  • Facebook URL

Related Listings

    Latest Updates

    • Reconciling man with nature through ethical wildlife tours
    • Take care of your neighborhood – a philosophy for ecotourism
    • What biodiversity means in the Mediterranean region and beyond
    • Putting indigenous communities first on the Kokoda Track
    • Travellers seek wellness for people and planet post-Covid – Neophron Tours

    About Terra Incognita

    We believe that ecotourism can be a powerful force for good in the world, and seek to promote the best examples of ecotourism worldwide.

    Our mission is to empower a global community that travels for good.

    Our vision is a world where tourism drives positive change for people and wildlife.

    Latest Posts

    • Reconciling man with nature through ethical wildlife tours
    • Take care of your neighborhood – a philosophy for ecotourism
    • What biodiversity means in the Mediterranean region and beyond
    • Putting indigenous communities first on the Kokoda Track
    • Travellers seek wellness for people and planet post-Covid – Neophron Tours

    USEFUL LINKS

    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    Ecology Jobs

    Conservation Careers

    Sustainability Job

    Sustainability Jobs
    Copyright Terra Incognita © 2023. All Rights Reserved
    • Facebook
    • Twitter

    Login

    Lost your password?