Thanks again to all who entered our BIF contest and congrats to Emil Baumbach for the Best Picture and to all the Honorable Mention photographers. Today we go back to birds of Chile in more ways than one. First off it’s been over a week since I’ve shared pics from our February, 2024 trip, so back we go. Secondly we were in Chile twice: we arrived in Santiago, Chile and birded there for four days before we drove over the Andes Mountains to Argentina and after 7 days there we flew back to Chile and ended up on the Pacific Coast. The pictures I am sharing today are from when we went back to Chile from Argentina.
Since we were right on the Pacific coast there were lots of shorebirds around but I’ll save those pics for next time. Today I’ve selected some species we saw on a wooded path leading to the beach, in the shrubs along the way.
This first bird was one of my top five favorites in Chile, the Des Murs’s Wiretail. It took some effort to coax it out of the thick bushes but once it appeared, it wanted to show off its wonderful tail. It flicked around 6 long shafts just barely covered in feathers (appropriated named). How it could maneuver so easily through the dense scrub with that tail is simply amazing!
Our next species seen was a male and female Rufous-tailed Plantcutter. This interesting name is derived from their tendency to use the little serrations on their bills to cut leaves and sometimes fruit.
The Long-tailed Meadowlark is one of those birds that has a brilliant red on it. The bird is hard to miss, yet I did miss a full-frontal shot of it showing off its bright red breast. Maybe next time.
Finally, another favorite bird – seen both in Chile and Argentina. The male Spectacled Tyrant was a standout with those bright yellow “spectacles” on. Here it sits on a trail sign for the park we were birding in.
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