Fabrice Schmitt and David Fisher from their ongoing Chile tour.

We’ve just finished our first week in Chile, and have crossed so many wonderful landscapes and encountered so many stunning birds that it feels like we've been traveling for weeks. The weather was more chilly than usual, both in Patagonia and in the Lake District, and some recent snow falls painted white the summits of all the hills and mountains making the landscapes more beautiful than ever. Birding was wonderful in the southern part of the country and we were delighted to see the stars of this part of Chile tour, including a group of 51 King Penguins on a colony in Tierra del Fuego,

Some of the 51 King Penguins

a displaying pair of Magellanic Plovers on the shore of an emerald green lake, several Black-throated Finches together with 3 Tawny-throated Dotterels in the Patagonian steppe, and a group of two males and one female of the charismatic Magellanic Woodpeckers in the other-worldly Nothofagus forest in the Lake District.

The fabulous Magellanic Woodpecker, here a female - Image by Jake Mohlmann

The more common species are fantastic too, and included a pair of South American Snipe displaying just a few meters from us, the stunning Austral Negrito flycatching on the ground

The ground-loving Austral Negrito

and the elegant Upland Goose seen by the hundreds all over Patagonia.

Upland Geese: always a perfect portrait

We also experienced ‘Tapaculo hunting’ in the bamboo understory in Puyehue National Park, looking for Black-throated Huet-huet, and Chucao, Magellanic and Ochre-flanked Tapaculo. It was hard work, but most of the group succeeded in seeing three of these difficult birds, and one of us even managed see all four of them!! Well done, Daragh!

A successful tapaculo watch