56 birdwatchersdigest.com • January/February’ 17 • bird Watcher’sdigest
lava rocks near the penguins and
seeing their oversized, orange
feet close-up was worth the price
of admission.
Green pastures and patches
of beech forests dominate the
island’s hinterland. Chiloé is one
of the best places in the country
to see the endemic slender-billed
parakeet, and it did not take
long until a flock exploded from
a stand of roadside trees, their
long, curved upper mandibles
clearly visible even in flight.
These unique parakeets depend
on temperate forests composed
of southern beech and monkey
puzzle trees.
It is worth spending some
time exploring the inlets and
mudflats of Chiloé, because a
large percentage of the world’s
Hudsonian godwits winter here,
and there is a chance to spot the
uncommon snowy-crowned tern.
Parque Nacional Chiloé, along
the west coast of the island, has
trails through protected forests
and open country where colorful
Chilean flickers perched on fence
posts and three new tapaculos
gave us the runaround.
Back on the mainland, we
headed north from Puerto Montt
to Osorno and continued to the
fabled Parque Nacional Puyehue,
one of the main birding destina-
tions in the Lake District. The
park protects mountains and
volcanoes covered in majestic
southern beech forests on their
ground dwellers, but the ability
of birds to thrive in this barren
and harsh environment is beau-
tiful in itself. At the end of the
day, a bit of color was added to
the scene by white-sided hillstars
(a high-altitude hummingbird),
and a small flock of mountain
parakeets.
A short flight from Santiago
to Puerto Montt allows birders
to visit the large Chiloé Island
and its impressive coastline.
Puerto Montt also serves as the
gateway to Chile’s Lake District,
a landscape dominated by snowcapped volcanoes, misty southern beech forests, and freezing,
turquoise lakes. A short ferry
ride takes visitors to Chiloé. On
the island, the town of Ancud
makes an ideal base for a few
days of exploration.
The famous Punihuil penguin
colony near Ancud offers birders
close studies of Humboldt and
Magellanic penguins, being one
of the few colonies in the world
where both species breed side by
side. Locals ferried us in a small
boat around the islets lying just
offshore and close views of kelp
geese and marine otters were an
added bonus. Among the many
waterfowl found in Chile, the
steamer ducks deserve special
mention. They come in two flavors, descriptively named flying
and flightless steamer ducks. We
lucked into a pair of flightless
steamer ducks perched on the
