In the year 2020, the long awaited Mark Pearman's (with the addition of Nacho Areta as coauthor) field guide to the birds of Argentina and the South-west Atlantic finally saw the light and settled as the "go to" choice for international travelers visiting the region. It includes comprehensive information about 1075 species of birds (at the time they missed at least one species, which was first recorded in the country after the book was sent to print: the Andean Ibis - Theristicus branickii - which showed up in North-west Argentina) and some outstanding illustrations from four different artists, including two of the best Argentines: Aldo Chiappe and Jorge Rodríguez Mata. In my opinion, the quality of these two artists contrast a little bit with the plates made by the other ones, particularly with the pelagic and marine species (especially terns, which are shown with unrealistic colors, and most likely misguided by the text, such as in the bright-orange bills of the 'Argentine' subspecies of Sandwich Tern, Thalasseus sandvicensis, which in real life has a very much plain yellow color bill), but the overall quality of the entire book regarding its plates is more than satisfactory.
Texts are less helpful and in some cases contradict the information provided by the artists (in which case, I recommend following the artist lead). One example of this is with Hellmayr's Pipit (Anthus hellmayri), when the text indicates the complete lack of a malar streak in worn plumage and a "vague" malar streak in fresh plumage, but the drawings show malar streaks in both cases, which correspond better with real life sightings. Even more, the field identification table shown in the Appendix 3, directly says that the species has "none" malar streak, at any plumage. Although this seems to be just a detail within a quite thorough and impressive work, it is a major problem because it's within the most problematic identification bird groups that a good field guide should make the difference.
Maps are generally very thorough, especially for many continental species, and were very much updated to the year when this field guide came out (six years ago now). But most of the maps referring to pelagic species are not to be taken seriously. There was available information that could have made it a great pelagic birding guide, just as the book "Aves del Atlántico Sudoccidental & Antártida" (Christian Savigny, 2021) showed when it came out, but for some reason it was completely left out of this work.
Printed by Helm and Princeton field guides, you can order yours in the following links (just in case, I don't get any commission from this...):
- Helm Field Guides: https://www.nhbs.com/birds-of-argentina-and-the-south-west-atlantic-book
- Princeton Field Guides: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691147697/birds-of-argentina-and-the-south-west-atlantic
Again, overall this is a much better option for international travelers than the ones that were available in the market for such a public (the well-used "Birds of Southern South America and Antarctica", by De La Peña and Rumboll, and the always hard to get abroad and relatively expensive "Birds of Argentina and Uruguay", by Narosky and Yzurieta). So, don't hesitate and just buy this one, having in mind that it is not perfect, but together with the help of an app and, ideally, with a good guide, you'll have no problems identifying any bird you see during your trip to Argentina.
WHAT ABOUT MOBILE APPS?
Apart from the previous printed book, I also recommend to download Merlin app. It's very helpful as it will add good quality photographs plus great sound recordings that you can study before your trip. This app is famous for its automatic photo ID recognition, but even if you don't wish to use that function (which in Argentina is not yet as helpful as in North America or Europe), it's a fairly well done field guide that you can bring in your mobile for no cost (yes, it's completely free).
The pack for Argentina is available since 2020 and it has a big percentage of the species, but if you want to have them all (or almost), then also get the packs for Bolivia, Chile and South Brazil. You will get many species that are not found in Argentina (especially with the Bolivian pack) but that shouldn't be a problem.
WHAT IF YOU ALSO PLAN TO VISIT ANTARCTICA AND SOUTH GEORGIA?
Although Pearman & Areta's field guide does not include such places, it does cover ALMOST all species found down there, with a few important exceptions: South Georgia Pipit, South Georgia Cormorant and Antarctic Cormorant (both of them considered by many as subspecies of Imperial Shag) and the South Georgia subspecies of Yellow-billed Teal (a possible future split?). If you feel like you need to have these species in a field guide during your trip, my recommendation is to bring Alvaro Jaramillo's guide to the birds of Chile (which includes the Malvinas/Falklands, Antarctic Peninsula and South Georgia island). It will also be very useful if you are planing to do some birding around Ushuaia and in the Patagonian forest of both sides of the Andes, but it gets completely useless for other parts of the country (except maybe for the high altitude Puna wetlands of the North-west, and the high Andes along the Central-west part of Argentina). The last English version is a bit outdated (2003) but it is still, in my personal opinion, the best available field guide to the birds of Chile, because of the quality of the texts and information included, the great illustrations and its compact user-friendly size.
Here is a link to one of its printed versions: https://www.nhbs.com/birds-of-chile-jaramillo-burke-beadle-book (do not confuse it with the newest Helm field guide to the birds of Chile, which was made by other authors)
You can purchase it online directly from the publisher's website in this link: https://www.labibliotecadelnaturalista.com/productos/aves-del-atlantico-sudoccidental-y-antartida/?srsltid=AfmBOorbzKETKsb2a_5ndbPX0-IexN0yf-7n1hlMhsG0kw6v-yeOaSsV