CHILE

Comprehensive tip-to-tip survey tour of this visually spectacular and tourist-friendly country; Chilean endemics, condors, and Magellanic Woodpeckers.

$7275 (2008 fee). 21 days
From Santiago. Limit: 14
Good accommodations, easy to moderate terrain, cool to warm climate; moderate elevation (2 days) and high elevation (3 days). Our staff travel agents can book your air travel for this tour. Contact us at (800) 728-4953 for more information.

Male Magellanic Woodpecker on trunk of old growth Southern Beech. by guide Alvaro Jaramillo

Chile has broad appeal to both first-time and veteran birders in South America.  To newcomers, it is a fine place to experience many typical Neotropical families without being overwhelmed; to veterans, the attraction is Chile’s endemics and the specialties of the southern temperate forests shared with Argentina.  Add to this that Chile is a wonderful country in which to travel.  The cities, both large and small, are clean and friendly; the airlines are as fine as we have found anywhere; and the national park system—spanning the country’s entire length (2600 miles!)—preserves a complete range of natural habitats.  We will visit several of Chile’s major parks and reserves as we bird each of the distinctive vegetational and altitudinal zones from the Peruvian border to the gorgeous Lake District, continuing to the tip of the continent, Tierra del Fuego.

Torrent Duck by participant Dean Schuler

Our tour will record approximately 280 species of birds, a manageable number even for those new to the Bird Continent.  Among these are widespread southern species; but there are also many others that are little known or of very local distribution, such as Lesser and “Puna” rheas, Chilean Tinamou, Westland and deFilippi’s petrels, Austral Rail, Giant Coot, Tawny-throated Dotterel, Magellanic Plover, Diademed Sandpiper-Plover, Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe, Rufous-legged Owl, Slender-billed Parakeet, White-sided Hillstar, Chilean Woodstar, the incredible Magellanic Woodpecker, Creamy-rumped Miner, Des Murs’ Wiretail, Black-throated and Chestnut-throated huet-huets, Moustached Turca, Patagonian Tyrant, Rufous-tailed Plantcutter, Tamarugo Conebill, and Black-throated Finch.  Waterfowl are a highlight of southern South America, and we should see hundreds of Black-necked Swans and smaller numbers of Coscorobas, as well as five species of geese, Flightless and Flying steamer-ducks, Torrent Duck, and many more.  Join us this year for a second summer—this one in Chile!

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Field Guides Incorporated, 9433 Bee Cave Road, Building 1, Suite 150, Austin, TX 78733

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