Photo Gallery
Photos by Steve Howell
The contrasts of Chile are epitomized by comparing Santiago, Chile’s modern capital city where the Andes define the spectacular eastern skyline, with…
…the vast wilderness of Tierra del Fuego, where herds of Guanaco range and…
…Darwin’s Rheas raise their families on the grasslands.
In 2005, our first afternoon in Punta Arenas produced close-up views of silvery Antarctic Fulmars, as well as…
…this obliging Rufous-chested Plover on the beach right outside our hotel!
The handsome Rufous-collared Sparrow occurs throughout Chile. This individual is of the southern race australis, with reduced black head stripes.
The tiny Austral Negrito is an endearing little terrestrial flycatcher, common in southern Chile in summer.
Aberrant southern shorebirds we saw in 2005 included this Snowy Sheathbill…
…and there’s always a chance for the stunning Tawny-throated Dotterel!
But then it’s time to leave the wide-open Patagonian steppes…
…and head north to the old-growth temperate rain-forests of the Lake District.
Magellanic Woodpecker is one of the world’s largest and most spectacular woodpeckers, which says something for the size of some of the trees in Chile’s temperate rain forests!
The attractive Austral Thrush, counterpart to the American Robin, is a common resident in central and southern Chile.
Back in central Chile, Giant Hummingbirds are among many species nesting during our tour.
One morning we take a short pelagic trip into the riches of the Humboldt Current, where birds following the boat include Black-browed and Salvin’s albatrosses, Pink-footed Shearwaters, Pintado and White-chinned petrels, and — you never know what else might be in there.
Here a Buller’s Albatross from New Zealand meets Peruvian Pelicans in Chile’s Humboldt Current
In 2004, Inca Terns landed all over our boat, some only a few feet away from where we sat…
…and in 2005, this white-morph Southern Giant-Petrel was a real surprise, here with Northern Giant-Petrels and a Peruvian Pelican.
The Peruvian Diving-Petrel, a tubenose counterpart to the northern hemisphere auklets, is one of several seabirds endemic to the Humboldt Current.
A happy group of birders after another fabulous pelagic.
Our coastal hotel in Quintero is a great place to relax after the pelagic trip and between our land-birding excursions.
Just another picnic lunch in the stunning Andes, and always a good time to look up as…
…Andean Condors flew low overhead at two of our picnic-lunch venues in 2005.
The handsome Thick-billed Siskin is a rare and local summer resident of Chile’s Central Andes.
The superb little Diademed Sandpiper-Plover is a local inhabitant of the Andes in northern and central Chile.
As well as amazing birds, central Chile is home to a spectacular flora, including this Puya, a large terrestrial bromeliad.
And lastly we move to northern Chile, where the starkness of the Atacama Desert is accentuated on meeting lush irrigated valleys.
Species in these northern valleys include the cryptic Peruvian Thick-knee, a large nocturnal shorebird.
Our base for three nights is the town of Putre, nestled amid alfalfa terraces at 13,500 feet elevation.
The striking Black-hooded Sierra-Finch is a regular feature at our picnic lunch by….
…Lake Chungara.
Mammals in the northern Andes include sleepy Vizcachas, which often sun themselves on roadside rocks…
…and the elegant Vicuña, which is a common sight grazing on bogs (or bofedales).
Back on the coast, flocks of the handsome Gray Gull and the sound of surf serenade us to sleep for our last night, and then all-too-soon it’s over…