Chile: Condors, Penguins, and Albatross

Our Chile birding tour explores an incredible variety of habitats, from the productive Pacific coast to the high Andes and the forests of Chiloé Island. Along the way, we’ll look for Andean Condor, Humboldt Penguin, remarkable albatrosses, and Chilean specialties while enjoying some of the country’s most beautiful landscapes.

Our tour will start in the capital city, Santiago. Our first few days will take us to several fantastic destinations along the coast visiting pristine marshes, scenic coastlines, and diverse estuaries. Once we make it to Valparaíso, we’ll take a pelagic trip into one of the most productive areas for seabirds. During this part of the trip, our targets will include Many-colored Rush-Tyrant, Ticking Doradito, Black-browed, Salvin’s, Buller’s, Chatham, and both Northern and Southern Royal Albatrosses, multiple petrels, shearwaters, and storm-petrels, Humboldt Penguin, and Seaside Cinclodes.

From here, we’ll head south to the southern beech forests of Vilches looking for the species that call this area home such as Rufous-legged Owl, White-throated Treerunner, and Chestnut-throated Huet-huet. The next couple of days will be spent birding our way north through the Andes. A visit to the El Yeso Valley to see the Diademed Sandpiper-Plover will surely be a highlight of this tour!

From here, we’ll head back to Santiago and catch our flight to Puerto Montt. While in this part of Chile, we’ll spend our time on the charming Chiloe Island. Our targets here include Slender-billed Parakeet, Magellanic Woodpecker, Rufous-tailed Hawk, and Black-throated Huet-huet. A boat trip into the Gulf of Corcovado will give us a good chance to see the rare and local Pincoya Storm-Petrel!

Optional Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego Extension

Our extension for this tour will start with a flight to Punta Arenas in Patagonia. From here, we’ll travel to Tierra del Fuego. On our ferry ride to the island, we’ll search for a variety of seabirds including Black-browed Albatross, Southern Giant-Petrel, Southern Fulmar, White-chinned Petrel, Sooty Shearwater, Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, and Magellanic Diving-Petrel. Our main target once in Tierra del Fuego are the King Penguins that have formed a colony on the shore of Useless Bay. In addition to the penguins, we will look for highlights such as Rufous-chested and Tawny-throated Dotterels, White-bridled Finch, Magellanic Plover, Least Seedsnipe, and Band-tailed Earthcreeper.

After a short ferry ride back to the mainland, we’ll drive through the scenic steppe habitat towards the famous Torres del Paine National Park. We’ll spend our time in this region birding throughout both the park and Sierra Baguales. Avian highlights during this part of the trip could include Ruddy-headed Goose, Magellanic Woodpecker, Yellow-bridled Finch, Austral Parakeet, and much more!