Strange Tails
We're delighted to have a strong population of strange-tailed tyrants at the reserve. So much so that we've adopted these beautiful and endangered birds as the symbol of the Trust
The growing diversity of the animals of Reserva Don Luis is a fresh source of delight every time we return. We don't play favourites, but it's impossible not to engage more with some of our more conspicuous guests. One of these is the strange-tailed tyrant. The male is stoic in his tolerance of one of nature's strangest - and it would seem least practical - adaptations. He's willing to suffer to be beautiful, and somehow manages to fly with tail feathers that were surely designed for a bird three times his size.
We love his perseverance; his resolution to succeed against challenge, and his ability to prove that anything is possible. He's appearing in growing numbers on the Reserva Do Luis, and his success has become an allegory for, and a symbol of, our own.
When we started the process of updating and redesigning our website, we wanted to adopt an image that symbolised our aims and our challenges. This brave little flycatcher, with his indomitable character, was the perfect choice.
The logo is a stylised profile of a male tyrant, silhouetted against the sunrise. We coloured the sun the blue of the Argentinian flag in honour of this country's beauty, its climate and the breathtaking span of magnificent animals that it nurtures.
Bat Research
Our bat team is conducting bat research both in the Ibera Marshes and in other provinces. We are especially concentrating on Misiones at the moment where we find the largest bat in Argentina, Chrotopterus auriitus and Myotis ruber, two species that we are researching.
Pygoderma bilabiatum
Ipanema Bat
We first captured this medium sized frugivorous bat in a private reserve in Misiones in March 2018. In fact we captured two together in the same net - a post lactating female and a juvenile. They are quite rare. Since then we have caught several in Misiones, and in March 2023 we caught one in our net in Reserva Don Luis, in Monte Grande. We believe that this is the first Pygoderma bilabiatum captured in the Esteros del Ibera.
It's striking features are the bright white marks on the shoulders, the large bulbous greenish eyes and the yellow interior of the ear including the tragus. The upper lip gives the appearance of being double. The long dorsal fur is tricolour - dark/pale/dark and the ventral fur is more or less unicolour and paler. There are bare patches of pink skin on the ventral side of the shoulders The weight of the female was 24g and the juvenile 16g. Forearm lengths were slightly smaller than those of Sturnira lilium - 41.1 and 38.0mm respectively.
This bat belongs to the family Phyllostomidae and is uncommon in the NE of Argentina.