The Falklands embrace some 400 islands approximately 480 miles northwest of Cape Horn.  Cold, oxygen-rich waters off Antarctica have created one of the richest communities of marine birds and wildlife in all the world.  Our itinerary will afford us access to six species of penguins, as well a huge colony of Southern Elephant Seals.  Offshore, Orcas patrol the Falkland coastlines, prospecting for penguins and seals forced to return to the sea to fish for their offspring.  Our tour begins in Punta Arenas on the Straits of Magellan in southernmost Chile.  Most of the local town specialties—Kelp, Dolphin, and Brown-hooded Gulls, Chilean Skuas, and Rock and King Shags—are easily seen from the hotel environs.  The next day we'll visit Otway Sound for our first Penguin species, Magellanic.  Other possibilities in the area are Lesser Rheas and Andean Condors.  It's only a two hour hop to Port Stanley, population 2,000 and the largest town in the Falklands.  The next five days we'll divide between several of these remote islands in search of penguins, cormorants, and albatrosses, as well as dolphins, seals, and sea lions.  Land birds range from extremely local and curious Striated Caracara to the endemic and confiding Cobb's Wren.  A special jaunt out to Volunteer Point will allow us to see the majestic King Penguin and a trip to Pebble Island may net us both Macaroni and Erect-crested Penguins.  Other penguins we're sure to see include Rockhoppers and Gentoos.  Photographic opportunities in the Falklands are simply superb.  Photography is also nonpareil on part two of our trip.  Torres del Paine National park is one of the most beautiful national parks on the planet—a place where mountains, glaciers, wetlands, steppes, and forests come together to provide varied habitats for a vast array of birds, many of which are restricted exclusively to these latitudes. We will start our activities in a native Southern Beech forest, trying to see one of the region’s most magnificent birds: the Magellanic Woodpecker.  At nearly 18 inches in length, this is probably the largest woodpecker still extant in the Western Hemisphere.  In the same habitat it will also be possible to see the southernmost representative of the parrot family, the Austral Parakeet, as well as the remarkable White-throated Treerunner. Birding above timberline, we’ll try to find Bar-winged Cinclodes, Scaly-throated Earthcreeper, and Patagonian Mockingbird.  We will also visit the Torres del Paine wetlands, home to Andean Ruddy Duck, Red Shoveler, beautiful Great Grebe, and the delicate White-tufted Grebe,  Here, too, we may find Austral Parakeet and Scaly-throated Earthcreeper while circling above we may see a soaring Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle.  Southern Chile is also famous for its bountiful array of beautiful waterfowl.  Some of these include Coscoroba and Black-necked Swans, four species of geese, and both Flightless and Flying Steamerducks. Spacious steppes are home to Lesser Rheas and Chocolate-vented Tyrants, and Tierra del Fuego features specialties like Magellanic Oystercatcher, and both Rufous-chested and Tawny-throated Dotterels.  Patagonia is also the wintering grounds for flocks of Baird’s and White-rumped Sandpipers, birds that migrate 10,000 miles twice annually.

Leaders: Enrique Couve & Rick Taylor

View Falkland Island & Torres del Paine National Park Photo Gallery