Birdfair 2018
A
apr-jun 2018 • birdlife
Mar Chiquita
Photo Pablo Rodríguez
Merkel
water or darken the sky when clouding between
invertebrate-rich shorelines. “Mar Chiquita
is key to the future of shorebirds using three
different intercontinental flyways”, says Rob
Clay, Director, Western Hemisphere Shorebird
Reserve Network Executive Office.
4
Phalaropes in flight
Photo Gustavo Bruno
7
This in itself might be world enough. Yet
appreciating the full faunal richness of Mar
Chiquita involves venturing away from water.
In golden-dry grasslands, South America’s
tallest bird, the flightless Greater Rhea Rhea
americana (Near Threatened), canters past
a diminutive Bearded Tachuri Polystictus
pectoralis (Near Threatened). At night, a Maned
Wilson’s Phalarope
Steganopus tricolor
Photo Gustavo Bruno
3
I
B
A
/
K
B
A
F A
C
Mar Chiq uita
Location: Central Argentina
Type: Salt lake
Size: 1,200,000 hectares
Trigger species: Andean
Flamingo, Crowned Solitary Eagle
T
F
I
L
E
What is it like? Measuring 70km
(45 mi) by 24km (15 mi), Mar Chiquita is
the world’s biggest salt lake and South
America’s second biggest waterbody.
This vast wetland provides ample
feeding and nesting opportunities for
birds both permanent and migratory.
Any threats? Dam construction
and water extraction are shrinking the
lake at an alarming rate. The habitat is
also being degraded by pollution from
local industry and towns, unregulated
tourism and deforestation.
gargantuan pink candyfloss wisps
over an immense lake in north-
central Argentina before sugar-
rushing upwards in a flurry of a
hundred thousand wings. Mar Chiquita – South
America’s second-largest waterbody, and the
world’s fifth-biggest salt lake – harbours most of
the planet’s Chilean Flamingo Phoenicopterus
chilensis and nearly half its Andean Flamingo
Phoenicoparrus andinus. A lagoon with a
legend, it is also an IBA In Danger, a national-
park-in-waiting… and the focus of the British
Birdwatching Fair 2018.
Mar Chiquita means ‘little sea’. This vast
salina (salt lake) ranges 45 miles (70km) by 15
miles (24km). Mar Chiquita is a literal oasis –
and its water, marshy fringes and surrounding
grasslands throng with wildlife. Up to 318,000
Chilean Flamingos (Near Threatened) have
been counted, their bubblegum-pink
congregation boosted in winter with up
to 18,000 Andean Flamingo (Vulnerable)
and smaller numbers of Puna Flamingo
Phoenicoparrus jamesi (Near Threatened).
Mar Chiquita’s shorebird gatherings challenge
credulity. Tens of thousands of American
Golden Plover Pluvialis dominica, White-
rumped Sandpiper Calidris fuscicollis and Lesser
Yellowlegs Tringa flavipes migrate here from
North America. Tens of thousands of each
species, that is. But that’s small change.
Six hundred thousand Wilson’s Phalaropes
Steganopus tricolor winter here. Six hundred
thousand. Roughly one-third of the world
population of these delicate, needle-billed
shorebirds pirouette hyperactively atop the
What is being done? National
Park status will confer greater
protection. Locals will be engaged
as Conservation Guardians, and
livelihoods will be boosted by
sustainable ecotourism.
27