Bird Watching in Chile Tour: Colbún and Altos de Lircay - 4 Days

Most international flights to Santiago of Chile are during the night.

As they arrive early morning participants will be able to spend a relaxing first day in a hotel close to the airport. During the afternoon their guide will meet them at the hotel in order to explain, discuss and answer last questions regarding itinerary or any necessary detail before beginning this fantastic trip.

We will drive towards south to Talca and continue our trip to Colbún Lake, where our main targets are the large, spectacularly colourful and very noisy Burrowing Parakeet and beautiful Spectacled Duck. Hopefully we will also find a good number of other interesting ducks, grebe species and opportunity to see Spectacled Tyrant and Andean Gull. We will then make short trip to north to spend the rest of the day and all of the following day in the Altos de Lircay National Park. This is old Nothofagus forest with spectacular tree, plant life and interesting geological rarities along with forest bird species. At dusk we will look for the hard to see Rufous-Legged Owl before spending the night in quiet and comfortable forest lodge in Vilches.

We will spend full day in Altos de Lircay to explore the extensive forest. We will be looking for the nasal scolding of Chile's least known Tapaculo and Chestnut-Throated Huet-Huet. We will also be looking for more Nothofagus forest’s specialities such as Austral Parakeet (the world's most southerly parrot species), Chucao Tapaculo with its explosive voice, Magellanic Tapaculo and Patagonian Sierra-Finch. This will be our first opportunity to see the truly spectacular Magellanic Woodpecker, and there is a chance to spot rare and difficult to find Chilean Hawk. After a long day we will return to Vilches.

This morning we will birdwatch near the Park and we will look for species that we may have not seen in first two days. After our lunch we will leave quiet Vilches area and head back to Santiago.