Central Chile & Patagonia Oct 18—30, 2008
Posted by David Ascanio
David Ascanio
David Ascanio, a Venezuelan birder and naturalist, has spent the last 25 years guiding birding tours throughout his native country, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Guyana,&n...Related Trips
Our 2008 Central Chile and Patagonia tour combined wonderful close views of land and sea birds throughout a large number of habitats with the spectacular scenery for which this narrow country in southern South America is well-known.
Our trip started in Los Farellones, a popular ski area near Santiago, where we had our first sightings of Common Diuca-Finch and Gray-hooded Sierra-Finch. As we acclimated to these mountains, a juvenile Mountain Caracara flew across the road, while the endemic Chilean Tinamou and Moustached Turca were enjoyed by everyone. During the following days we explored a prominent Humboldt Penguin colony in Central Chile, as well as other protected areas, obtaining views of ground-tyrants, Wren-like Rushbird, Stripe-backed Bittern, and Rufous-tailed Plantcutter, the latter a member of the famous Cotingidae, an amazing family with species distributed mainly in tropical South America.
After a couple of days in Central Chile it was time to move south, to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. A domestic flight to Punta Arenas was followed by a drive along the scenic road to Torres del Paine National Park. What a place! We added 3 species of grebes; 13 species of waterfowl; shorebirds; coots; and ovenbirds (Furnariidae) to our daily field checklist. In Torres del Paine we especially appreciated Austral Canastero, Chilean Flamingo, Andean Condor, and superb views of a pair of Magellanic Woodpeckers.
From Torres del Paine we drove into Argentina, to El Calafate, for a flight to Ushuaia, one of the southernmost populated areas in the Americas. A short visit to Tierra del Fuego National Park offered views of White-throated Treerunner and the southern race of American Kestrel. Our day finished with everyone well-dressed on the upper deck of Via Australis, our home for the next four days.
Our navigation across the Chilean fjords allowed us to bird around Cape Horn, the Beagle Channel, and the Magellan Strait. The most common seabirds were Black-browed Albatross, Cape Petrel, Antarctic Giant Petrel, and Southern Fulmar. Surprisingly, diving-petrels were not abundant for most of the trip until we reached Isla Magdalena, near Punta Arenas. On that morning we counted 95 Magellanic Diving-Petrels (as we approached the island) in a period of 21 minutes!
Back in Santiago, we arranged for a bus to take us to La Dormilona and Lampa the next morning to look for the endemic Dusky-tailed Canastero and Chilean Pigeon. Our morning in this region of Chile was followed by lunch and a drive to the airport for our flights home.
We want to express our gratitude to all of the participants for joining us in this part of beautiful Chile. We hope to see you again!