0:07

Hello and welcome. This

0:09

is The Science of Birds.

0:12

I am your host,

0:14

Ivan Philipson. The Science

0:16

of Birds podcast

0:18

is a light-hearted exploration

0:21

of bird biology

0:23

for lifelong learners.

0:26

This episode, which is

0:28

number 112, is a from-the-field

0:30

episode and it's all about

0:33

my recent experiences with the

0:35

birds and birding in Patagonia.

0:38

I was just there leading a birding

0:40

tour for about two weeks and

0:42

it was marvelous and it's a

0:45

great place to experience nature

0:47

so I think this will be

0:49

a fun episode to share my

0:51

experiences and for you to learn

0:53

a little bit more about Patagonia.

0:55

Now since this is a from-the-field

0:57

episode I am recording it in

1:00

a I guess you'd call it

1:02

a cabin and I'm actually in

1:04

Chile right now in sort of

1:06

South Central Chile after the Patagonia

1:08

tour I went on my own

1:10

to Central Chile to do some

1:13

exploring for a future tour here.

1:15

So I have a rental car I've

1:17

been driving around exploring and

1:20

it's been really cool. Right now

1:22

I'm in the lovely town of

1:24

Puerto Vadas. in the Lake District.

1:26

And this is about as far south as

1:28

I'm going to get before I fly home

1:30

in a couple days. So depending how

1:32

you define Patagonia, some might say

1:34

I'm still in Patagonia, even though

1:37

I was recently in Central Chile

1:39

from Santiago to the coast, to

1:41

the Andes, and the Central valleys.

1:43

Anyway, since I'm recording this in

1:45

this lodging, there might be some

1:48

ambient sounds. I never know what's

1:50

going to make it through my editing

1:52

process, but you might hear some dogs

1:54

barking. Or perhaps more interesting would be

1:56

the birds that you might hear out

1:58

there. There are chimmongle... black-faced

2:01

ibises, and even slender-billed

2:04

parakeets making a racket

2:06

out there, at least every so often.

2:08

And that's pretty cool. That's definitely

2:10

a reminder that I'm not home.

2:13

You know, dogs I got at home,

2:15

but I do not have any

2:17

slender-billed parakeets in Portland Oregon as

2:19

far as I know. Right, so let's

2:22

go ahead and get into it, and

2:24

let's talk about the wonders of Patagonia.

2:38

So let's start with a little

2:40

bit of geography, a little background.

2:43

So picture the continent of South

2:45

America, and if it's kind of like

2:47

an ice cream cone, then you have the

2:50

southern cone, that portion is

2:52

Patagonia. Patagonia knows no boundaries,

2:54

no borders. It spans both

2:56

Argentina and Chile, the southern

2:58

parts of those two countries.

3:00

So Patagonia is not a country,

3:03

it is a region. And it has

3:05

no hard border on the

3:07

north, but it runs roughly

3:09

between 40 degrees and 55

3:11

degrees south latitude. The southernmost

3:13

point of South America, Cape Horn,

3:15

is still considered Patagonia. So

3:18

of course, South America is

3:20

famous for its bird diversity

3:22

and just biodiversity in general,

3:25

but as you move toward

3:27

Antarctica, toward the southern pole,

3:30

as latitude increases, Biodiversity

3:32

of birds and just about everything

3:34

else tends to decrease. Patagonia

3:37

is a temperate environment. It's

3:39

not tropical. So as you move south,

3:41

you have fewer species, and then

3:43

finally when you get to Cape

3:46

Horn, it's a relatively, an area

3:48

with a relatively low biodiversity. But

3:50

of course, Antarctica has everyone beat

3:52

on the low biodiversity score, so

3:54

we won't get into that. I'll

3:56

try not to talk too much

3:58

smack about Antarctica. in this episode.

4:01

So Patagonia, right? So where did

4:03

that name come from? What is

4:05

its etymology? So the name Patagonia

4:07

comes from the word Patagon, which

4:09

was the term that Magellan used

4:11

when he came through in the

4:13

early 1500s. And he used that

4:15

word to describe the native people

4:17

that were living here at the

4:19

time, relative to Europeans that Magellan

4:22

was familiar with, these people that

4:24

we were... creating him on the

4:26

shore were tall and almost giant-like.

4:28

So he was basically describing them

4:30

as like giants because apparently Patagon

4:32

was a literary character, kind of

4:34

like Bigfoot or something that was

4:36

familiar to Magellan. Not really an

4:38

appropriate description, you know, not really

4:40

accurate, but the people here in

4:43

Patagonia were apparently taller than Europeans

4:45

at the time. So you have

4:47

this southern cone of South America

4:49

and geographically one of the most

4:51

important things. is the Andes Mountain

4:53

Range. That of course is super

4:55

important for South America in general,

4:57

but it really influences the environments

4:59

that you get in Patagonia. And

5:01

we'll get to this sort of

5:04

biogeography in a moment. So in

5:06

terms of the Andes in Patagonia,

5:08

they're not the highest part of

5:10

the Andes. The mountain peaks tend

5:12

to decrease in elevation as you

5:14

go south, on average. But we

5:16

can say that there's somewhere between

5:18

5,000 and 13,000 feet in terms

5:20

of the overall range, where maybe

5:22

most of the peaks are somewhere

5:25

between 6,000 and 9,000 feet. In

5:27

terms of meters, that would be

5:29

between roughly 1,800 meters and 2,700

5:31

meters. I think I got that

5:33

right. So running along the west

5:35

coast of Patagonia, you have the

5:37

Andes Mountain Range, and on the

5:39

west coast you have... All of

5:41

these islands, there's this kind of

5:43

this really, this jumble of islands

5:46

and archipelago there, especially in the

5:48

south, and lots of deep fjords.

5:50

And all of that, all of

5:52

this was carved out by glaciers.

5:54

during the last glacial maximum of

5:56

the Ice Age. So it's a

5:58

really complex topography in the sort

6:00

of west and south of Patagonia

6:02

because of the mountains and the

6:04

interaction with the glaciers and the

6:07

ocean and all that. And a

6:09

big part of that is fairly

6:11

inaccessible, unless you have a boat.

6:13

Now there are a couple of

6:15

these fjords, these deep channels carved

6:17

out by glaciers. that are well

6:19

known and very important to the

6:21

geography of the region. The first

6:23

is the Strait of Magellan. You've

6:25

probably heard of that one. This

6:28

was the passage that Magellan and

6:30

his crew discovered that allowed them

6:32

to get through the southern tip

6:34

of South America to reach the

6:36

Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic. The

6:38

Strait of Magellan is roughly 350

6:40

miles long, which is 570 kilometers,

6:42

and its width varies a lot

6:44

from something like two miles to

6:46

about 20 miles. But it's a

6:49

pretty wide channel in general. The

6:51

Strait of Magellan separates the large

6:53

island of Tierra del Fuego to

6:55

the south from the mainland of

6:57

South America. And Tierra del Fuego,

6:59

that's the name of the big

7:01

island, but it's also an archipelago.

7:03

So there's the actual island of

7:05

Tierra del Fuego, which is split

7:07

between Chile and Argentina. And then

7:10

there are lots of little islands

7:12

associated with that that are also

7:14

considered part of the region of

7:16

Tierra del Fuego, which is a

7:18

region within the region of Patagonia.

7:20

And separating the larger island of

7:22

Tierra del Fuego from the smaller

7:24

islands at the southernmost part of

7:26

Patagonia is the Beagle Channel. So

7:28

this again is a glacially carved

7:31

channel and it is narrower and

7:33

shorter. It's only about 150 miles

7:35

long or 240 kilometers and its

7:37

width ranges between 3 and 8

7:39

miles or 5 to 13 kilometers.

7:41

And the Beagle Channel gets its

7:43

name from the HMS Beagle which

7:45

is a ship that you may

7:47

have heard of. It was made

7:49

famous by the voyage of Charles

7:52

Darwin. who traveled around a large

7:54

part of South America and described

7:56

his adventures in the book The

7:58

Voyage of the Beagle. So I

8:00

mentioned glaciers. There are plenty of

8:02

glaciers in the southern part of

8:04

Patagonia in the mountains. There were

8:06

a lot more during the last

8:08

glacial maximum in the ice ages,

8:10

but the remnant of the massive

8:13

ice sheet that used to cover

8:15

all of southern South America One

8:17

of those remnants is the southern

8:19

Patagonia ice field, which is still

8:21

there. It's the world's second largest

8:23

piece of ice, of sort of

8:25

contiguous ice outside of the polar

8:27

regions. So it's this massive ice

8:29

field that's roughly 220 miles long

8:31

from north to south or 350

8:34

kilometers. and it has an area

8:36

of about 6,350 square miles, or

8:38

16,500 kilometers squared. And that runs

8:40

along the crest of the Andes,

8:42

and is divided between Chile and

8:44

Argentina. And I should point out,

8:46

just in case you don't know,

8:48

that Chile is on the western

8:50

part of Patagonia, and Argentina is

8:52

on the east, roughly. Okay, so

8:55

that's just a little bit about

8:57

the basic geography of Patagonia. Now,

8:59

what about the sort of biological

9:01

or ecological aspect? Well, you've got

9:03

the mountains there that has a

9:05

strong influence on what kind of

9:07

habitats or ecosystems that exist in

9:09

Patagonia. And it's the interaction with

9:11

the mountains and the prevailing winds

9:13

that really drives the whole scene.

9:16

The winds tend to come in

9:18

from the west off of the

9:20

Pacific Ocean, and they carry lots

9:22

of moisture. When those moist winds

9:24

or air masses hit the Andes,

9:26

they drop precipitation on the west

9:28

side. That could be rain in

9:30

the northern parts or it can

9:32

be lots of snow, especially in

9:34

the winter. And that of course

9:37

sustains the southern Patagonia Icefield and

9:39

all those glaciers. The glaciers I

9:41

should mention are, there are many

9:43

glaciers that... it radiate outward from

9:45

the southern Patagonia ice field. It

9:47

is the source for those glaciers.

9:49

So you have this wind coming

9:51

in from the west. Precipitation drops

9:53

on the western slopes of the

9:55

mountains. And then as the air

9:58

masses continue to the east, they

10:00

don't have much moisture left. And

10:02

they dry out even further as

10:04

they drop down in elevation to

10:06

the relatively broad flat plane that

10:08

extends from the east slopes of

10:10

the Andes all the way to

10:12

the Atlantic Ocean. Because other than

10:14

the Andes, Patagonia is in many

10:16

places quite flat, or just kind

10:19

of a rolling, flat landscape. And

10:21

it's very dry, so the eastern

10:23

part of Patagonia is very dry.

10:25

And because of the latitude, it's

10:27

quite cool or cold, especially in

10:29

the winter. So this is a

10:31

pretty harsh environment, which is why

10:33

it isn't super-biodiverse. Even though it

10:35

has lots of interesting species of

10:37

all kinds. unique and fascinating ones,

10:40

it isn't all that diverse. So

10:42

we have two major ecoregions that

10:44

result from this pattern of precipitation

10:46

and temperature. On the slopes of

10:48

the Andes, and also running down

10:50

into southern Tierra del Fuego, you

10:52

have an ecoregion called the Magellanic

10:54

Subpolar Forests. So an ecoregion includes

10:56

multiple habitat types, but it's a

10:58

broad sort of way of describing

11:01

the ecosystem. So these Magellanic sub-polar

11:03

forests are dominated by just a

11:05

couple tree species. There's really not

11:07

a lot of tree diversity. And

11:09

those tree species are both in

11:11

the same genus Nothofagus, N-O-T-H-O-F-A-A-G-U-S. These

11:13

are called commonly the Southern Beaches.

11:15

Beech as in B-E-E-E-C-E-S. And yet

11:17

these beaches are not close relatives

11:19

of the beaches we know in

11:22

the northern hemisphere, those in Europe

11:24

and Asia. North America. So these

11:26

Nothafagas trees, they have small dark

11:28

greenish leaves with kind of a

11:30

toothed margin and the trees do

11:32

vaguely look I guess kind of

11:34

like oaks or beaches. They're quite

11:36

beautiful and the two species that

11:38

are most familiar would be the

11:40

would be Nothafagas pumilio which is

11:42

the Lenga beach which they call

11:45

it Lenga locally and that's a

11:47

deciduous species so it gets some

11:49

really nice fall color around this

11:51

time of year drops its leaves.

11:53

And then there's the evergreen species,

11:55

North of Vegas Becheloides, Magellan's Beach

11:57

it's called, that's one of the

11:59

common names, Orguindo, by the locals.

12:01

So the cool thing about these

12:03

North of Vegas trees, and I'll

12:06

try not to go on and

12:08

on about this, is that other

12:10

members of this genus are distributed

12:12

in other places, other southern latitudes

12:14

of the world. So in Southeastern

12:16

Australia, including Tasmania, in New Zealand,

12:18

New Caledonia, and New Guinea. And

12:20

the reason these close relatives of

12:22

these trees are distributed like that

12:24

is because they're really ancient. It's

12:27

an ancient lineage and they hearken

12:29

back to Gondwana, the southern supercontinent,

12:31

that all of these other places

12:33

were a part of millions of

12:35

years ago, many millions of years

12:37

ago, prior to the extinction of

12:39

the dinosaurs. South America, Antarctica, Australia,

12:41

those are all connected, as well

12:43

as New Zealand and New Caledonia

12:45

and all of that. So it's

12:48

just cool to see North of

12:50

Vegas forest because you're seeing kind

12:52

of a glimpse into the old

12:54

Gandhuanian forests. And this group of

12:56

plants did provide some really great

12:58

evidence for the idea of continental

13:00

drift. You know, we always have

13:02

to remember that it wasn't that

13:04

long ago that nobody thought of

13:06

or even believed the idea that

13:09

the continents moved around on the

13:11

surface of the earth. We just

13:13

thought the continents were in place

13:15

and they've always been there and

13:17

that's just how it is. But

13:19

eventually we figured out that the

13:21

continents move around very very slowly

13:23

One of the strong lines of

13:25

evidence was finding groups of closely

13:27

related species, or even the same

13:30

species, distributed around the planet in

13:32

places that they probably couldn't have

13:34

gotten to by dispersal, by moving

13:36

either with seeds or flying or

13:38

swimming or whatever. So you have

13:40

these nothophagus trees, and it's unlikely

13:42

that they got to where they

13:44

are today by dispersal. They're there,

13:46

most likely, because they were on

13:48

some larger continent. and they had

13:51

a continuous distribution and then that

13:53

that continent broke up into pieces

13:55

and carried fragments of those forests

13:57

on the pieces. Anyway, I have

13:59

to cut myself off because yeah,

14:01

it's just a cool topic. But

14:03

the Magellanic subpolar forests are quite

14:05

lush. They get a lot of

14:07

rainfall so they're very green. There

14:09

are lots of, you know, things

14:12

like moss and lichens everywhere, small

14:14

shrubs, ferns. And these forests support

14:16

a particular group of birds and

14:18

other animals. And we'll get to

14:20

talking about those very soon. So

14:22

that's one of the two major

14:24

ecoregions we're talking about. The other

14:26

is the Patagonian step. S-T-E-P-P-P-E. You

14:28

can think of these as the

14:30

Patagonian grasslands, except that when we

14:33

talk about step, we're talking about

14:35

a really dry grassland. It's almost

14:37

desert. The grasses are not very

14:39

tall, not very lush. So anyway,

14:41

yeah, the Patagonian step, because it's

14:43

so cold and dry for large

14:45

part of the year, because there's

14:47

this strong desicating wind, it's just

14:49

really hard for many plants to

14:51

survive. So there are almost no

14:54

trees on the Patagonian step, barely

14:56

even any shrubs sometimes. It's just

14:58

these kind of low grasses and

15:00

small herbaceous plants. This is a

15:02

particularly difficult environment to live in

15:04

for birds and other wildlife. And

15:06

I just mentioned wind, I should

15:08

just point out that Patagona is

15:10

famous for its wind across the

15:12

whole region and that doesn't mean

15:15

it's always windy but it is

15:17

quite often. But I personally you

15:19

know from a pretty young age

15:21

I decided I didn't really like

15:23

wind all that much and I'm

15:25

trying to have a better attitude

15:27

about it but even with that

15:29

sort of dislike for wind I

15:31

really really like Patagonia so yeah

15:33

I don't know if I don't

15:36

want to live here but I

15:38

certainly like visiting and I haven't

15:40

really had a problem dealing with

15:42

the wind. Oh, but I should

15:44

say that when we began our

15:46

tour, and I'll get to what

15:48

we did in a moment here,

15:50

but when we arrived to Ushwaya,

15:52

the city in the southernmost part

15:54

of our adventure, when we left

15:57

the airport to get into our

15:59

bus, our little small bus van

16:01

thing, the wind was super high

16:03

and we had to be really

16:05

careful not to open the doors

16:07

so that they... just ripped off

16:09

of the vehicle. Or in fact,

16:11

there was, you know, we had

16:13

the luggage lined up on the

16:15

sidewalk and everybody was loaded in

16:18

the van and I was outside

16:20

and I actually had to like

16:22

chase one of the pieces of

16:24

luggage as it was like rolling

16:26

down the sidewalk being blown by

16:28

the wind. It was really intense

16:30

and kind of funny, honestly. Okay,

16:32

so we have these two ecoregions,

16:34

the Magellanic Subpolar Forest, and you

16:36

can imagine where the word Subpolar

16:39

comes from, it just means we're

16:41

not quite at the poles at

16:43

the southern pole. And then you

16:45

have the Patagonian step. Now, across

16:47

the region, there are some, I

16:49

would say, some special bird groups

16:51

that are kind of highlights, and

16:53

we'll talk about a lot of

16:55

these along the way today. There

16:57

are the Rias, and those are

17:00

an ostrage-like flightless bird. We'll talk

17:02

about them in a moment. There

17:04

are two families that are famous

17:06

in the Neotropics in South America,

17:08

then Central America. for being incredibly

17:10

diverse. These are among the most

17:12

diverse families in the world. One

17:14

is the family fornariadi. This is

17:16

the family of oven birds and

17:18

wood. creepers. I wish it had

17:21

a better sort of common name,

17:23

but that's what we say. So

17:25

we call birds in this family

17:27

fernareeds. There are over 300 species

17:29

in the family and they come

17:31

in many different flavors in terms

17:33

of their bill shape and their

17:35

habits, the where they feed and

17:37

how they feed. They show this

17:39

really remarkable diversity of body form

17:42

and beak form or bill form.

17:44

And you know I will be

17:46

doing a podcast episode about them

17:48

before too long at some point.

17:50

And it will probably be a

17:52

really long one because it's a

17:54

really fascinating group in South America.

17:56

So that's ferna rea-e. Then the

17:58

other family is tyranidae. And these

18:00

are the tyrant flycatchers. We have

18:03

a few of them in North

18:05

America, but their stronghold is in

18:07

South America. And this is actually

18:09

the most species-rich bird family in

18:11

the world. There are over 400

18:13

species in the family tyranidae. And

18:15

there were some interesting representatives that

18:17

we saw in our time in

18:19

Patagonia. So those are large families

18:21

that are found across South America

18:24

and they have some interesting representatives

18:26

in Patagonia. Then there also are

18:28

a couple monotypic or really small

18:30

families in Patagonia. And so these

18:32

would be birds that you would

18:34

probably only see or almost certainly

18:36

only see in Patagonia. And I'll

18:38

talk about those as we come

18:40

to them along the itinerary. Of

18:42

course, Antarctica is famous for having

18:45

penguins, as well as islands like

18:47

South Georgia and those really southern

18:49

islands that have colonies of penguins.

18:51

But you can see penguins in

18:53

Patagonia as well, and we did,

18:55

and it was really cool. More

18:57

on that later. And then lastly,

18:59

just in terms of general bird

19:01

groups, and there's probably more I

19:03

could think of kara-kara's as being

19:06

one of the special things in

19:08

Patagonia. There are certainly car cars

19:10

in other parts of Latin America,

19:12

but you have a couple species

19:14

that you see along most of

19:16

the journey in Patagonia, and that

19:18

would be the... crested caracara as

19:20

well as the chamongo caracara, like

19:22

the ones that I just heard

19:24

and saw out my window. All

19:27

right, here we go. So now

19:29

I'm going to walk you through

19:31

a little bit of the actual

19:33

experience we had, each of the

19:35

different parts of the journey and

19:37

highlighting some of the birds and

19:39

maybe other natural wonders along the

19:41

way. So we all met up

19:43

as a group in Buenos Aires,

19:45

Argentina, but that is not technically

19:48

Patagonia, so I'll kind of just

19:50

gloss over that part. But then

19:52

we took a flight, about a

19:54

three and a half hour flight,

19:56

I believe, down to Ushwaya, which

19:58

is the southernmost city in the

20:00

world. It's in Argentina and it

20:02

is on the south coast of

20:04

the island of Tierra del Fuego,

20:06

and it sits right on the

20:09

Beagle Channel. So in terms of

20:11

latitude, we're talking that it's somewhere

20:13

around 54 degrees south latitude. So

20:15

way down there. And it's actually

20:17

a pretty cool town. I really,

20:19

really like Ushwaya. It is a

20:21

touristy town. It is the jump-off

20:23

point for many cruises that go

20:25

to Antarctica. So there's pretty much

20:27

always big cruise ships there, at

20:30

least in the in the Austral

20:32

summer. But yeah, this is often

20:34

said to be El Fin del

20:36

Mundel Mundo, the end of the

20:38

end of the world. And it's

20:40

in Tierra del Fuego, which I

20:42

didn't mention earlier, which is Spanish

20:44

for the land of fire. Because

20:46

I guess when some of the

20:48

first explorers were coming through, they

20:51

saw the campfires of the native

20:53

people on the shore, so it

20:55

became the land of fire, Tierra

20:57

del Fuego. Which I don't know

20:59

about you, but to me, that

21:01

is just so evocative, you know,

21:03

that name, Patagonia and Tierra del

21:05

Fuego, these are places that... Before

21:07

I ever went there, I heard

21:09

about since I was a kid

21:12

and they just always sounded so

21:14

adventurous and exciting and exotic. Okay,

21:16

so now our group is in

21:18

Ushwaya and the adventure begins. We

21:20

start birding. We're starting to see

21:22

special birds of the area. And

21:24

we do two really cool things.

21:26

The two main sites that we

21:28

explore are Tierra del Fuego National

21:30

Park, and then we take a

21:33

boat ride on the Beagle Channel.

21:35

So we head west of the

21:37

city, west of Ushwaya, into the

21:39

National Park. And this is characterized

21:41

by really lush, Magellanic sub-pollar forest,

21:43

or southern beach forest, with lots

21:45

of old trees and beautiful mountain

21:47

slopes. and it's still right on

21:49

the ocean it's on the Beagle

21:51

Channel so you've got these bays

21:54

and there's rivers feeding into the

21:56

bays and little lakes and things

21:58

that it's just gorgeous. So we

22:00

start birding and we're walking around

22:02

and right away we see some

22:04

of our first Andean condors which

22:06

for many of us that would

22:08

be a very exciting bird to

22:10

see in this part of the

22:12

world especially if you've never seen

22:15

one and sure enough there they

22:17

were they were they were kind

22:19

of circling around pretty high but

22:21

It turned out over the course

22:23

of the two-week adventure that we

22:25

saw quite a few condors. So

22:27

we were very satisfied with the

22:29

experience with our condors. And then

22:31

we started seeing other sort of

22:33

common birds, things like austral thrushes.

22:36

The austral thrush is in the

22:38

thrush family. It's a close relative

22:40

of the American Robin. It's in

22:42

the same genus, Tertus. So austral,

22:44

that word turns up a lot

22:46

when you're in this part of

22:48

the world, austral... Obviously it makes

22:50

you think of Australia and it

22:52

actually refers to the South. Because

22:54

Australia means something like southern land,

22:57

so when you have something like

22:59

an austral thrush it just means

23:01

a southern thrush. And some other

23:03

austral birds that we saw on

23:05

our trip were the austral Negrito,

23:07

the austral blackbird and austral parakeet.

23:09

And speaking of austral parakeets, this

23:11

is a really exciting species to

23:13

see in Patagonia because it's... pretty

23:15

much at least when you get

23:18

down to Ushwai it's the only

23:20

member of the parrot group of

23:22

the order of parrots in the

23:24

region and the austral parakeet is

23:26

actually the southernmost parrot in the

23:28

world in terms of of its

23:30

distribution. This is a charming species.

23:32

It's green overall with some blue

23:34

and kind of rusty accents, and

23:36

they're squawking and flying around, often

23:39

in pairs, sometimes in flocks, and

23:41

they're primarily forest birds. So they

23:43

live in these southern beach forests.

23:45

So we started seeing some of

23:47

those, and another bird that is

23:49

really iconic and exciting to see

23:51

in the southern forests, the southern

23:53

beach forests. is the Magellanic Woodpecker.

23:55

I've talked about this species on

23:57

the podcast before. It is one

24:00

of my favorites for sure. So

24:02

again, there's that word Magellanic. So

24:04

the Magellanic Woodpecker is one of

24:06

eight species of birds that have

24:08

the word Magellanic in the common

24:10

name. So we came up with

24:12

the arbitrary goal of seeing all

24:14

of the eight species that have

24:16

the word Magellanic in the common

24:18

name. So here we have the

24:21

Magellanic Woodpecker. This is a large

24:23

woodpecker. It's got a black body

24:25

overall. The female is entirely black

24:27

and she's got a cool little

24:29

curly crest. The male has an

24:31

all-red head and neck and so

24:33

they're both really striking-looking birds and

24:35

they're monogamous. They hang out together

24:37

all year round, traveling around in

24:39

the forests, sometimes in small family

24:42

groups. They're loud and yet sometimes

24:44

they can be tricky to find.

24:46

So really just an awesome bird.

24:48

Another special bird in this ecoregion

24:50

in the sort of forested ecoregion

24:52

is the green-backed fire crown, a

24:54

hummingbird. And it has the special

24:56

distinction of being the southernmost hummingbird

24:58

in the world, just like the

25:00

parakeet, the offral parakeet, is the

25:03

southernmost parakeet, is the southernmost parrot.

25:05

And with the fire crown, it's

25:07

the only hummingbird that you see

25:09

in southernmost Patagonia. So if you

25:11

see a hummingbird, that is it.

25:13

In Tierra del Fuego National Park,

25:15

we started to also see birds

25:17

that would become pretty familiar like

25:19

the thorn-tailed riotito. This is a

25:21

member of the fernariadi family that

25:23

I mentioned. This is a really

25:26

charming little bird. It has these

25:28

kind of stripes on its head

25:30

of buff and black and white.

25:32

A really bold pattern in the

25:34

wings and the tail indeed has

25:36

these little what looked like spiky

25:38

projections sticking out. The tips of

25:40

the tail feathers don't have any

25:42

barbs, so you're just seeing the

25:44

shaft or the rakus. And these

25:47

birds are noisy, they travel around

25:49

in flocks, and they make these

25:51

cute little calls and songs, and

25:53

they can be often quite confiding,

25:55

so you'll often see them fairly

25:57

close up. And when we were

25:59

in the Tierra Del Fueco National

26:01

Park, we had this big flock

26:03

of them that came in, and

26:05

they were just crawling around on

26:08

the tree trunks and branches all

26:10

around us, and it was really

26:12

awesome. So the thorn-tailed rioto has

26:14

the scientific name, Aphrostura spinacata. And

26:16

that comes from Greek and I

26:18

think it means something like marvelous

26:20

tale, the genus name anyway. So

26:22

just kind of a side note

26:24

is that a couple years ago

26:26

there was a paper where researchers

26:29

identified a new species of riotito

26:31

living in the southernmost part of

26:33

Patagonia on a little group of

26:35

islands called the Diego Ramirez Archipelago.

26:37

And they used genetic data to

26:39

identify this new species and they

26:41

named it Aphrostura sub-antarchica. At the

26:43

time I'm recording here, that species

26:45

is still not recognized by the

26:47

Clements checklist of birds, which is

26:50

the one that I typically refer

26:52

to. But maybe it'll make it

26:54

onto the list and that there

26:56

will be a new species there

26:58

in that these islands that are

27:00

right at the southern tip of

27:02

South America. And if that species

27:04

is designated, if we agree that

27:06

it is a real thing, which

27:08

probably we should, I think that

27:11

the special distinction there would be

27:13

that it would be the southernmost

27:15

songbird in the world. So keep

27:17

an eye out for that, Aphrostura

27:19

sub-antarchica. So the thorn-tailed riotito is

27:21

in the family fernaria D, and

27:23

another member... of that family that's

27:25

pretty cool is the white-throated tree

27:27

runner. And this guy, this bird

27:29

looks like a nut hatch, and

27:32

it kind of behaves like that.

27:34

It's almost like a cross between

27:36

a nut hatch and a little

27:38

woodpecker or something. It has a

27:40

nut hatch shaped bill, but it

27:42

braces itself against a tree like

27:44

a little woodpecker. And of course,

27:46

it's not closely related to either

27:48

of those types of birds. But

27:50

this is another species that is

27:53

closely tied to nota fagas trees,

27:55

to the Magellanic sub-polar forests, and

27:57

it scoots around on the bark,

27:59

looking for invertebrates very much like

28:01

a nuthatch. Along the coast of

28:03

Tierra del Fuego National Park and

28:05

of Ushuaia, there are some really

28:07

cool ducks. And these are the

28:09

steamer ducks. In particular, the species,

28:11

the flightless steamer duck, is my

28:14

favorite. That's tachyaries teneres. This is

28:16

a big, heavy-bodied bird bird. It's

28:18

almost goose-like in its proportions, very

28:20

thick. And it is indeed flightless.

28:22

It can only just paddle around

28:24

in the water, like a little

28:26

steamboat. And this bird, because it's

28:28

flightless, it's always just right on

28:30

the coast. They'll come out onto

28:32

the rocks or onto the beach,

28:35

but basically they just are otherwise

28:37

out in the water poking around

28:39

in the kelp beds and things.

28:41

And so that is a special

28:43

bird to see in Patagonia and

28:45

nowhere else. So we're seeing all

28:47

these birds in the forest and

28:49

on the coast and we're having

28:51

a great time and the national

28:53

park is beautiful, but then it's

28:56

time to go back to Ishwaya

28:58

and jump on a boat with

29:00

a bunch of other people and

29:02

head out into the Beagle Channel

29:04

for a five-hour tour where we

29:06

are primarily out there looking for

29:08

birds. So we've got this catamaran

29:10

and we're cruising along in the

29:12

channel and we got lucky with

29:14

the weather because the day before,

29:17

as I was mentioning when we

29:19

started, it was ridiculously windy, it.

29:21

All the boat trips had been

29:23

canceled, so we actually got lucky

29:25

that the day we wanted to

29:27

go out worked out. So we

29:29

go out there and right away

29:31

we're seeing some great seabirds. There

29:33

are black-browed albatrosses, quite a few

29:35

actually, swooping around over the water.

29:38

Anytime you see in Albatross, that's

29:40

pretty exciting. And there are also

29:42

giant petrels, these kind of grayish-brown

29:44

birds that are scavenger sort of

29:46

opportunistic seabirds. They're both northern and

29:48

southern giant petrels in the area,

29:50

and those can be pretty difficult

29:52

to identify at a distance. So

29:54

our first major stop is on

29:56

this really small group of little

29:59

islands that are uninhabited. They're just

30:01

little rocks, basically, and there's a

30:03

lighthouse there. And we've got some

30:05

seabird colonies, as well as a

30:07

colony of southern sea lions. So

30:09

we're bobbing around the water, looking

30:11

at this scene, and it's really

30:13

awesome, because first of all, we've

30:15

got two species of cormorants. There

30:17

are the Imperial cormorants and the

30:20

Magellanic cormorants. So there's another Magellanic

30:22

bird. And they're just two of

30:24

them. that I recall. And this

30:26

is where I kind of lose

30:28

my mind, because it turns out

30:30

that these are snowy sheath bills.

30:32

Kionis albus. So if you've never

30:34

heard of a sheath bill, there's

30:36

only two species in the world,

30:38

and this is one of them.

30:41

They belong to the family Kionidae,

30:43

and they're just weird, unusual birds,

30:45

and I have for years wanted

30:47

to see one. And this was

30:49

the first time I ever saw

30:51

a sheath bill in the flesh.

30:53

So I was just freaking out.

30:55

I was pushing little old ladies

30:57

out of the way. I was

30:59

knocking people into the water. I

31:02

was just like, get out of

31:04

my way. I got to see

31:06

a sheath bill. It was total

31:08

chaos. No, no, I maintained my

31:10

cool. I tried not to show

31:12

how excited I was about the

31:14

sheath bill, but I was really,

31:16

really excited. This could possibly be

31:18

my bird of the entire trip,

31:20

honestly. So what do these things

31:23

look like? I should be more

31:25

specific. Okay, so you've got... Kind

31:27

of a pigeon-like body, sort of,

31:29

something like a cross between a

31:31

pigeon, a chicken, and a shorebird.

31:33

It has thick gray legs and

31:35

feet, and its bill is sort

31:37

of a green... color and it

31:39

has bare pink skin or on

31:41

its face but with lots of

31:44

warts, lots of coruncles. And yes

31:46

there is a caratness sheath that

31:48

surrounds part of the bill. It's

31:50

unusual for birds. It's kind of

31:52

unique among birds. So broadly speaking

31:54

the snowy sheath bill or sheath

31:56

bills in general, birds in the

31:58

family kionity are shorebirds. Their closest

32:00

relative is the Magellanic plover and

32:02

we're going to talk about that

32:05

bird bird in a moment. So

32:07

not really... Yeah, it's just their

32:09

odd taxonomically in terms of what

32:11

they look like and what they

32:13

actually are, odd in their habitat

32:15

and their eating habits, and I

32:17

don't know, I just like them

32:19

because they seem like many people

32:21

would find them unappealing and unlovable,

32:23

but that makes them all the

32:26

more lovable to me. So yeah,

32:28

maybe someday, well almost certainly someday

32:30

I will talk more about the

32:32

sheath bills when I talk either

32:34

about the birds of Antarctica or

32:36

maybe I'll give those birds an

32:38

entire episode just to talk about

32:40

them, who knows? So anyway, there

32:42

we are floating on our ship

32:44

looking at these islands and another

32:47

bird that we see there is

32:49

a small songbird, the blackish synclodes.

32:51

Synclodes is spelled C-I-N-C-L-O-O-D-E-S. Cinclotes is

32:53

the name of the genus for

32:55

the bird, and there are 15

32:57

other species in that genus, and

32:59

most of them just have the

33:01

common name Cinclotes. They're in the

33:03

family fornoreeidae, and they look kind

33:05

of like, some of them look

33:08

kind of like thrushes, some of

33:10

them look more like mockingbirds, but

33:12

of course they're not related to

33:14

those birds. They're there fornoreeds, and

33:16

the blackish Cinclotes is one of

33:18

several that we saw on our

33:20

that we saw on our trip,

33:22

and it pokes around in these

33:24

colonies or along the rocky shoreline

33:26

looking for little invertebrates and things.

33:29

And so it is one of

33:31

the target birds you would want

33:33

to see on the Beagle Channel.

33:35

And we did in fact see

33:37

it. Again, I'm freaking out and

33:39

some of my fellow travelers in

33:41

my group we're freaking out, but

33:43

you know, all these other people

33:45

on the boat that are just

33:47

out there taking selfies and whatnot,

33:50

they couldn't care less about this

33:52

little black grayish bird that's walking

33:54

around on the shore. We tried

33:56

to get them excited about it,

33:58

but they weren't having it. But

34:00

the main attraction of the boat

34:02

trip is the penguins. That's why

34:04

most of these people are doing

34:06

this. They're there to see the

34:08

penguins. So we travel for another

34:11

hour so on the water heading

34:13

east to some on the water

34:15

heading east to some on the

34:17

water, So we get to these

34:19

small islands where there are colonies

34:21

of two species and it was

34:23

so cool to see them up

34:25

close. We stayed on the boat,

34:27

we didn't walk around among them,

34:29

but we got to see them

34:32

quite well. We got to see

34:34

the gentoo penguin in smaller numbers,

34:36

maybe there are several dozen, and

34:38

then we saw maybe several hundred

34:40

Magellanic penguins. And they were basically

34:42

side by side, and this was

34:44

just really cool, because these were

34:46

lifers for most of us, including

34:48

me. I'd never seen either of

34:50

these two penguin species of these

34:53

two penguin species. and we got

34:55

to watch them frolicing around, standing

34:57

on the beach, preening, going into

34:59

the water, swimming, the whole shebang.

35:01

So the boat trip was a

35:03

great success. It was super fun

35:05

and we saw some amazing birds.

35:07

Again, the highlight being the snowy

35:09

sheath bill, everybody's favorite bird. But

35:11

yeah, we saw some penguins too,

35:14

I guess, if you, you know,

35:16

you like that sort of thing.

35:27

After a couple of days of

35:30

exploring the region around Ushuaia in

35:32

southern Tierra del Fuego, it was

35:34

time to head north to continue

35:36

our journey. But first, before we

35:38

left town, we stopped at the

35:40

all-important birding site, the dump, the

35:42

landfill. Because if you've been birding

35:44

for a while, you know that

35:46

much like sewage treatment ponds, the

35:49

dump can often be a great

35:51

place to go find birds. And

35:53

sure enough we found one of

35:55

our target birds there at the

35:57

Ushwaya dump and that was the

35:59

white-throated Karakara, which is quite... a

36:01

nice-looking bird. And remember, if we

36:03

haven't talked about it before, caracaras,

36:05

they're raptors, and they have a

36:07

hawk-like appearance, but they're actually in

36:10

the Falcon family. So they're kind

36:12

of specialized falcans. So we saw

36:14

the white-throated caracar, we saw a

36:16

few of them, which was great,

36:18

and at that same site, we

36:20

also had our friends, the Chimongo

36:22

caracaras, and cresteded caracaras, in greater,

36:24

I've talked about that a little

36:26

bit before, but we didn't see

36:28

that one unfortunately, so maybe another

36:31

time. So leaving the dump, then

36:33

we got in our little bus

36:35

and we headed up over the

36:37

Andes to the north. We head

36:39

up and over the mountains and

36:41

then we dropped down. And then

36:43

we get into the relatively flat

36:45

part of Patagonia, and we're still

36:47

on the island of Tierra del

36:50

Fuego. But the landscape flattens out

36:52

and the forest starts to give

36:54

way to the step. At first

36:56

you get kind of an open

36:58

woodland with a different species of

37:00

Nothafagas, Nothafagas, Antarctica, I believe it's

37:02

called. And now we start to

37:04

see one of the other icons

37:06

of Patagonia, and that is not

37:08

a bird, but a mammal, the

37:11

guanaco. Guanacos are members of the

37:13

camel family, their new world camelids,

37:15

and they're really beautiful, really charming,

37:17

and it's really exciting to see

37:19

them at first, and it's always

37:21

exciting, but you end up seeing

37:23

a lot of them throughout Patagonia.

37:25

Throughout Patagonia. Anyway, they're really cool.

37:27

They're beautiful animals and they're especially

37:30

adapted to the harsh landscape of

37:32

the Patagonian step. But in terms

37:34

of birds, as we're heading across

37:36

this flat, dry part, sort of

37:38

the northeastern part of Tierra del

37:40

Fuego, we have one major target

37:42

and that is the Magellanic plover.

37:44

So there you go, another Magellanic

37:46

bird. All right, we're getting them,

37:48

we're knocking them out because we

37:51

did in fact find the Magellanic

37:53

clover. Polyvianellus socialis. Now if I

37:55

just pointed out the Magellanic Plover,

37:57

I said, hey, check that out

37:59

over there. Magdalonic plover, and you

38:01

didn't know anything else about the

38:03

bird, you might be like, well,

38:05

that's cool, it's like a little

38:07

gray, kind of shore birdy looking

38:10

thing, kind of chunky, not overly

38:12

distinctive looking necessarily. And maybe that's

38:14

true, but here's the thing about

38:16

the Magdalonic plover. It is the

38:18

only species in its family. Pluvianelidae.

38:20

So pluvianelody is a monotypic family.

38:22

It has just one species. This

38:24

bird for a long time was

38:26

considered a considered a considered a...

38:28

true plover, it was treated as

38:31

being a member of the family

38:33

caradriidae. But more recent research and

38:35

genetics and all that good stuff

38:37

has caused ornithologists to reclassify it,

38:39

putting it in its own family,

38:41

and that family is not even

38:43

all that closely related to the

38:45

plover family. The Magellanic plover is

38:47

more closely related to the thick

38:50

knees, which are shorebirds in the

38:52

family burena di. And as I

38:54

mentioned earlier, the Magellanic Plover is

38:56

also a close relative of our

38:58

friends, the sheath bills. So on

39:00

these mudflats, we did see some

39:02

Magellanic Plovers, high-fives all around. My

39:04

fellow leader, trip leader David, and

39:06

I tried to get everybody hyped

39:08

up about why it was exciting

39:11

to be seeing this bird. Because

39:13

again, just based on its appearance,

39:15

it's honestly not all that exciting.

39:17

But yeah, people got it and

39:19

we got excited and again we

39:21

got this other species with the

39:23

word Magellanic in the name for

39:25

our arbitrary goal of getting all

39:27

eight. And in terms of the

39:29

Magellanic Plover, I don't know if

39:32

it'll ever get its own podcast

39:34

episode maybe, but I should mention

39:36

that it is definitely a specialty

39:38

in Patagonia and behaviorally it is

39:40

different than your typical plover. It

39:42

has a more methodical approach to

39:44

the way it forages in these

39:46

mudflats. A Magellanic Plover sort of...

39:48

repeatedly pecks at the mud or

39:51

the substrate as it walks along

39:53

bobbing around. Unlike typical plovers that

39:55

are using their eyesight to run

39:57

around and grab it stuff. And

39:59

the Magellanic Plover will also dig

40:01

with its feet to find food

40:03

and sometimes dig quite a hole

40:05

to look for its prey and

40:07

that is unusual for a shorebird

40:09

as well. So like the sheath

40:12

bill, if I didn't say, I

40:14

mean, you know, seeing my first

40:16

sheath bill meant I also was

40:18

seeing a representative of a new

40:20

family for me. Well, the Magellanic

40:22

Plover was that as well. This

40:24

was a lifer and this was

40:26

my opportunity to see a bird

40:28

in the family. And as I've

40:31

said before, I'm always excited to

40:33

see a new bird family, to

40:35

see a representative of that particular

40:37

lineage on the avian tree of

40:39

life. To me, that's just really

40:41

cool. So the last highlight on

40:43

the island of Tierra del Fuego,

40:45

before we went to the mainland,

40:47

was we visited a penguin colony,

40:49

not a Gen 2 penguin colony,

40:52

this time it was a colony

40:54

of king penguins. That's right, King

40:56

penguins, the second largest species in

40:58

the world after the Emperor penguin.

41:00

Many king penguins breed elsewhere, not

41:02

on the South American mainland or

41:04

Tierra de Fuego, but this is

41:06

a colony of several hundred or

41:08

maybe 200 plus birds that are

41:11

quite accessible and you actually have

41:13

to get sort of a special

41:15

access. You have to buy a

41:17

ticket anyway to get into this

41:19

thing and you have to be

41:21

guided. And it is amazing. You're

41:23

just seeing these birds on this

41:25

bay. In the Patagonian step there's

41:27

grassland and little sand dunes around

41:29

and there they are and they're

41:32

gorgeous and it's amazing to be

41:34

seeing king penguins. And so while

41:36

we're visiting the colony, taking pictures

41:38

and all that good stuff, we

41:40

discover, we are told by our

41:42

guide that there is a special

41:44

visitor in the colony. There is

41:46

a vagrant bird that is a

41:48

long way from home tucked in

41:51

among the king penguins. There's another

41:53

penguin species. One individual of Snares

41:55

penguin. This is a much smaller

41:57

bird than the king penguins and

41:59

we did see him and he's

42:01

kind of just tucked in there

42:03

among the... The larger penguins just

42:05

hanging out, acting like it's no

42:07

big deal, hoping maybe he doesn't

42:09

get noticed. And where is Snare's

42:12

penguin actually native to? They breed

42:14

on the Snare's Islands, which is

42:16

a cluster of uninhabited islands off

42:18

of southern New Zealand, further south

42:20

than Stewart Island. Who knows how

42:22

this Snare's penguin got to Tierra

42:24

del Fuego. Maybe it ran into

42:26

some king penguins and decided to

42:28

end it up there. Who knows?

42:30

The guides and researchers at the

42:33

king penguin colony affectionately named this

42:35

individual Snares penguin Hugo, or in

42:37

Español, Hugo. And so, yeah, we

42:39

got to see Hugo and he

42:41

was cute and it was really

42:43

cool. And a snares penguin is

42:45

kind of a smallish penguin and

42:47

it has a prominent eyebrow or

42:49

supercilium of pale feathers on what

42:52

is otherwise a pretty much black

42:54

head and a thick orange bill.

42:56

So that was completely unexpected unexpected.

42:58

I don't think I would have

43:00

ever imagined that in my life

43:02

I would actually get to see

43:04

a snare's penguin. So that means

43:06

on this trip in Patagonia we

43:08

ended up seeing four species of

43:10

penguins. And just FYI as an

43:13

aside since I've been traveling in

43:15

Chile I picked up another penguin

43:17

species. On the central coast of

43:19

Chile I saw humbled penguins right

43:21

off the coast. So I've seen

43:23

five penguin species on this trip.

43:25

So finally we left Tierra del

43:27

Fueco. We got on a ferry

43:29

with our bus and we took

43:32

a ride across the Strait of

43:34

Magellan. Only took about 45 minutes

43:36

because we went across the sort

43:38

of narrow part of the strait.

43:40

And we scoured the waves on

43:42

either side of the ferry looking

43:44

for yet another Magellanic species. We

43:46

were looking for the Magellanic diving

43:48

petrol, a seabird. But try as

43:50

we might, we did not get

43:53

that one. But once we were

43:55

on the mainland, we were richly

43:57

rewarded with our first sights of

43:59

the Lesser Rea. So Rhea is

44:01

spelled R-H-E-A, the species is Ria

44:03

Panata, and this is a again

44:05

large flightless bird, much like an

44:07

ostrich in appearance or a cassowary.

44:09

Rias, there are only two species

44:12

and they're in their own family,

44:14

Ria-D, and that family is in

44:16

its own order, Ria formis. But

44:18

these birds are... more or less

44:20

related to ostriches, cassowaries, kiwis, all

44:22

those guys. Those are all in

44:24

the clay, the sort of lineage

44:26

of birds we call the paleagnats.

44:28

So we're driving along and you

44:30

see these things that kind of

44:33

look like little brown bushes out

44:35

in the grass in this empty

44:37

landscape. But no, those sort of

44:39

fluffy balls with legs with two

44:41

legs are lesser rhea. And they're

44:43

very, they're lovely birds and much

44:45

like the Gwenakos, they are amazing

44:47

in their ability to thrive in

44:49

the harsh environment of the Patagonian

44:52

step. So I should mention that

44:54

we have now transitioned from Argentina

44:56

to Chile just before we saw

44:58

the King Penguin Colony on Tierra

45:00

de Fago, we crossed the border

45:02

into Chile. So now we're in

45:04

Chile, and now we're on the

45:06

mainland having crossed the street of

45:08

Magellan, we're heading north, and our

45:10

destination is the next major set

45:13

piece of the adventure, and that

45:15

is... Torres del Paine National Park.

45:17

Torres del Paine is in the

45:19

Andes, and it is a beautiful

45:21

national park that is characterized by

45:23

mountains that have been heavily sculpted

45:25

by ice, by glaciers. So you

45:27

have the Torres, or towers themselves,

45:29

these pinnacles that look tooth-like, or

45:31

very, very tower-like, and then there

45:34

are the Cuernos. the horns, which

45:36

are also these iconic peaks that

45:38

have these sheer sides and just

45:40

really amazing appearances. So the landscapes

45:42

of this park are really one

45:44

of the big reasons you go.

45:46

The first couple days that we

45:48

were there were actually kind of

45:50

cloudy and then it kind of

45:53

rained a lot, so we didn't

45:55

get those big views. big landscapes

45:57

at first. But finally on our

45:59

last full day we were rewarded.

46:01

The sky opened up. We got

46:03

amazing views of the mountains and

46:05

it was spectacular. Another famous thing

46:07

for that region is the presence

46:09

of a mountain lion population or

46:11

pumas. They're called pumas or cougars,

46:14

right, but locally they're called pumas.

46:16

So many people go to that

46:18

area to see these big cats

46:20

often that are active during the

46:22

day. They hunt the guanacos primarily.

46:24

We did not see any pumas.

46:26

We weren't really trying specifically for

46:28

them. You kind of have to

46:30

go with like a tracker and

46:33

it's a whole thing. But there

46:35

was one that we were warned

46:37

about at our lodge. They said,

46:39

yeah, there's this female puma in

46:41

the area near the river and

46:43

she's got a youngster with her

46:45

that she's training to hunt, so

46:47

watch out if you go for

46:49

a walk. So that was kind

46:51

of cool. And a side note

46:54

about pumas is that apparently on

46:56

the east coast of Argentina in

46:58

Patagonia, the pumas there will actually

47:00

eat magillanic penguins. Like that's one

47:02

of the main things they eat.

47:04

How crazy is that? Like a

47:06

mountain lion hunting a penguin. That's

47:08

kind of crazy. So, but that's

47:10

mammals. Let's get back to the

47:13

birds. So, you know, again, we're

47:15

mostly enjoying the landscapes, learning about

47:17

the geology, some of the ecology.

47:19

considering the glacial history of the

47:21

park, but there were some good

47:23

birds as well. Some of the

47:25

same species we had been seeing

47:27

from our time in Ushwaya, but

47:29

we picked up some new ones

47:31

like the Tufted tit tyrant. This

47:34

is a great little bird. Very

47:36

charismatic, kind of like the thorn-tailed

47:38

riotito. But like its name, the

47:40

Tufted tit tyrant, or the triple-T,

47:42

T-cubed, this species is in the

47:44

family, Tyranity. Tufted tit tyrants are

47:46

small and they're energetic. They have

47:48

a kind of short little bill

47:50

and a crest. So in some

47:53

ways they do act and look

47:55

sort of like a tit, like

47:57

a member of the family parody.

48:00

So it has this cool little

48:02

jazzy crest that curls upwards and

48:04

then kind of curls forwards, these

48:06

thin little feathers on the head,

48:08

and the head, the face and

48:10

head, and neck are thickly or

48:12

dramatically striped. They're these parallel stripes

48:14

of basically black and white. That

48:16

to me is pretty dramatic. And

48:18

then the eyes, the irises, are

48:20

pale. So it has this bright-eyed

48:22

look. It's just a great little

48:24

bird. And then we got Magellanic

48:26

woodpeckers, a really good look at

48:28

Magellanic woodpeckers in the forests of

48:30

Torres del Pinae. We got our

48:32

first look at a Chilean hawk.

48:34

And we got yet another Magellanic

48:36

species, a Magellanic tapaculo. Tapacullos are

48:38

a special bird in the neotropics.

48:40

There are about 65 species. They're

48:42

all in the family rhinocryptidae. They're

48:44

famous for being skulky secretive birds.

48:46

They're often really difficult to see.

48:48

You hear them far more often

48:50

than you see them. And they're

48:52

kind of wren-like. They're often stout-bodied,

48:54

kind of little, little feathered balls

48:56

with legs, and their tails are

48:59

cocked up. And they're really, just,

49:01

really hard to see. So it

49:03

was very exciting to see a

49:05

Magellanic Topekulo. And that species is

49:07

basically kind of really dark gray

49:09

or black all over. And that

49:11

was a lifer for me, as

49:13

well as everybody else in the

49:15

group, except for our local guide,

49:17

except for our local guide. And

49:19

I did get a recording of

49:21

a Magellanic tapaculo while I was

49:23

here exploring in Chile, and so

49:25

I'll play that for you now.

49:27

There's a lot of background noise

49:29

because there was a stream nearby

49:31

right where the bird was calling

49:33

from. and then it was time

49:35

to head back to Argentina. So

49:37

we headed east, crossed the border,

49:39

and now we are... rarely within

49:41

the Patagonian step. We're seeing kind

49:43

of the best example of that

49:45

now, and it just extends as

49:47

far as the eye can see

49:49

for miles and miles and miles

49:51

for hours along our drive on

49:53

that day. And at this time

49:56

of year, I mean, we're basically

49:58

in fall in the austral fall,

50:00

so the grass is brown and

50:02

kind of straw colored. And yeah,

50:04

it appears to be a pretty

50:06

lifeless environment. And again, the diversity

50:08

is low. But of course you

50:10

have things like guanacos and laceria

50:12

and condors and all kinds of

50:14

other birds. And we actually saw

50:16

an armadillo. So armadillos are primarily

50:18

South American animals. We do have

50:20

the one species in North America,

50:22

but we spotted a large hairy

50:24

armadillo. That's... the actual common name,

50:26

large hairy armadillo. It was on

50:28

the side of the road scuttling

50:30

around and so it was digging

50:32

into the ground kind of making

50:34

a burrow by a fence and

50:36

so I walked up to it

50:38

and I could really just see

50:40

the back and the tail and

50:42

it indeed was quite hairy and

50:44

yeah I was just really jazz

50:46

because I'd only ever seen one

50:48

other armadillo ever I saw one

50:50

in Texas one time and so

50:53

this was just really cool to

50:55

see it. So our destination on

50:57

this day as we've crossed back

50:59

into Argentinaina is the town of

51:01

El Calafate. And as we're approaching,

51:03

as we're crossing the step heading

51:05

towards El Calafate, we stop at

51:07

a viewpoint looking out over this

51:09

vast landscape, but we can also

51:11

see the Andes in the distance,

51:13

the snow-capped peaks. In particular, we

51:15

get this view of Mount Fitzroy,

51:17

also known as Cerro Chalten, or

51:19

El Chalten. This is a peak

51:21

that's about 11,100 feet in elevation

51:23

or 3,400 meters. It's pretty famous

51:25

for climbers. And... I learned at

51:27

that moment as I'm looking at

51:29

the thing through my scope that

51:31

this is if you know the

51:33

brand Patagonia, which I have quite

51:35

a bit of their stuff, I

51:37

like their sweaters and outer wear

51:39

and bags and stuff, the logo

51:41

for Patagonia is actually the thing

51:43

that I was looking at, which

51:45

is this skyline of those peaks

51:47

with Mount Fitzroy or Cerro Chalten

51:50

right there in the logo. So

51:52

that was kind of weird. Anyway,

51:54

so it was cool to see

51:56

that because we didn't really get

51:58

to see that peak anywhere else

52:00

on our trip because we weren't

52:02

really going there. So we continued

52:04

to El Calafate and got settled

52:06

in at our lodge. El Calafate

52:08

is kind of like Ushwaya, a

52:10

bit of a touristy town, but

52:12

also has some charm. I like

52:14

El Calafate quite a lot. It

52:16

has built up a lot in

52:18

the last couple decades around the

52:20

tourism industry, primarily because of the

52:22

presence of the lake that it's

52:24

sitting on, Lago Argentino, or Argentina,

52:26

which is this massive lake carved

52:28

out by a glacier during the

52:30

ice ages. And also the tourism

52:32

is focused on the nearby glaciers

52:34

and the mountains and trekking and

52:36

all that stuff. So there are

52:38

lots of lodges and restaurants and

52:40

outdoor gear shops and all that

52:42

and lots of foreigners. So right

52:44

around the town of El Calafate,

52:47

there's some good birding that you

52:49

can do. You can go into

52:51

the step environment and find special

52:53

birds that are only found out

52:55

there in the grasslands like the

52:57

Patagonian mockingbird, sharp-billed canistero, and scale-throated

52:59

earthcreeper. So the latter bird has

53:01

a scientific name, Upaserthea du Mataria.

53:03

It lives in kind of shrubby

53:05

vegetation on rocky slopes and in

53:07

the step in general, mostly in

53:09

grasslands. And it looks, if you're

53:11

from North America, it looks a

53:13

bit like a thrasher. It has

53:15

a relatively long down-curbed bill, kind

53:17

of a longer tail. But this

53:19

bird is in the family for

53:21

an Ariadi. And this was a

53:23

cool bird to see, you know,

53:25

the very first one we tried

53:27

really hard, it was very distant,

53:29

and we're trying to get everybody

53:31

on it with the scope and

53:33

describing where it was, and it

53:35

was very challenging, and then we

53:37

traveled down the road a little

53:39

further, and they were just everywhere,

53:41

which was really cool. And dig

53:44

this, we saw, this is amazing,

53:46

we saw one of these scale-throated

53:48

earth creepers that was... lucistic. We

53:50

see this white thing in a

53:52

bush and we think, oh this

53:54

must be a piece of wind-blown

53:56

trash or something plastic. No, that

53:58

is a bird and that bird

54:00

is entirely white and it has

54:02

a long down curve bill and

54:04

it is a scale-throated earthcreeper that

54:06

has no melanin in its feathers.

54:08

Now we looked at it through

54:10

our binoculars and with photos and

54:12

we could see that the iris

54:14

of the eye was dark. So

54:16

it's not, it wasn't an albino,

54:18

because an albino bird would have

54:20

no melanin whatsoever, no pigment anywhere,

54:22

including the eyes. But because this

54:24

bird had darker eyes, it means

54:26

that the melanin was not getting

54:28

deposited into the feathers, which makes

54:30

it lusistic. And we'll do the,

54:32

I'll do an episode, a podcast

54:34

episode about that. I think that

54:36

would be really interesting to talk

54:38

about melanistic birds, lusistic birds, and

54:40

all of that stuff, albino birds.

54:43

just to try to explain how

54:45

that works at the genetic and

54:47

cellular level. So anyway, here we

54:49

are, we're looking at this scale

54:51

through to the Earthkreeper, and we're

54:53

all just like realizing how rare

54:55

this is to be seeing this

54:57

bird. And right away, of course,

54:59

we came up with a name

55:01

for him. We named him Pedro

55:03

Blanco. And Pedro Blanco was an

55:05

adult bird, presumably, and who knows

55:07

how old he or she was.

55:09

And hopefully, by being white and

55:11

being an easy target, that Pedro

55:13

Blanco will survive for as long

55:15

as possible. Anyway, that was super

55:17

cool. So the other birding you

55:19

can do right in El Califate

55:21

is along the lake shore. There's

55:23

a wetland area there that's protected.

55:25

It's called Reserva Laguna Nimes. And

55:27

it's really fantastic birding. And we

55:29

got another of our target birds

55:31

there, which was the Chilean flamingo.

55:33

We saw just a couple individuals,

55:35

but it was really exciting. And

55:37

lots of other great waterfowl and

55:40

water birds, marsh birds. rewarding. And

55:42

then our last major site was

55:44

we headed west from El Calafate

55:46

to the mountains and we went

55:48

to see the glacier. So there's

55:50

Los Gla. Asiades National Park and

55:52

there is the Perito Moreno Glacier

55:54

that comes out of the Andes

55:56

and meets Lago Argentino and it's

55:58

one of these glaciers you can

56:00

just be right standing right in

56:02

front of looking at it and

56:04

you can actually on a clear

56:06

day see the almost the entirety

56:08

of the thing as it extends

56:10

20 miles up into the mountains

56:12

and the face of it is

56:14

three miles wide and it is

56:16

spectacular. So we went up to

56:18

enjoy the glacier and right. Right

56:20

where the glacier is meeting the

56:22

lake there's kind of this little

56:24

peninsula of land and it is

56:26

forested So you have this Magellanic

56:28

sub polar forest right up against

56:30

this glacier and there are there

56:32

can be flowers blooming and there

56:34

birds flying all around and one

56:37

of the craziest things to me

56:39

is the presence of these Ostral

56:41

parakeets now to see a flock

56:43

of parakeets flying in front of

56:45

the face of a glacier is

56:47

just kind of surreal and while

56:49

we were enjoying the scenery of

56:51

the glacier we got rewarded with

56:53

this massive caving event where a

56:55

big, big chunk of ice broke

56:57

off and fell into the lake.

56:59

And it was enormous and we

57:01

were just like, oh my God,

57:03

it was incredible. You know, it

57:05

splashed into the water with an

57:07

enormous roar and then it rolled

57:09

and rolled as it was bobbing

57:11

in the water. It was insane.

57:13

Our local guide said he'd been

57:15

coming there for 35 years and

57:17

had never seen a piece that

57:19

big break off. It was a

57:21

lovely day. We were rewarded with

57:23

basically a windless day, which is

57:25

again very rare in that part

57:27

of the world, and we could

57:29

see the entire glacier. There were

57:31

some great birds, and we just

57:34

had this great walk and a

57:36

great day. So

57:42

I want to end this episode with

57:44

just a few general thoughts on my

57:46

experience and my impression of Patagonia. I've

57:48

had the good fortune of traveling to

57:50

many different places around the world and

57:52

I do have a number of favorite

57:55

places, although that's always kind of an

57:57

evolving thing. It's kind of like... my

57:59

list of favorite birds, it's always changing,

58:01

always evolving, but I really, really like

58:03

Patagonia. It really speaks to me and

58:05

I just find it fascinating and beautiful

58:07

and yeah, really great place to explore.

58:09

As I've mentioned, it's not the most

58:11

diverse place in terms of species, but

58:13

the species that are here, the particular

58:16

mix of species is really interesting. You

58:18

have a fascinating mixture of geology and

58:20

the climate patterns with the climate history

58:22

in terms of the ice ages and

58:24

the geographic position of Patagonia, which is

58:26

this weird thing, right, where it has

58:28

this kind of, as we say, the

58:30

southern cone of South America, with no

58:32

large landmasses anywhere nearby. And so it's

58:34

isolated in its own way. And yeah,

58:37

it really does feel like you're at

58:39

the end of the world, El Findel

58:41

Mundo. So if you don't mind a

58:43

little wind and you are drawn to

58:45

temperate environments that are way out there,

58:47

this might be a place that you

58:49

would really enjoy. You can certainly see

58:51

unique birds here, maybe pick up some

58:53

penguin species, see some interesting mammals like

58:55

guanacos, armadillos, maybe a puma if you're

58:58

lucky. And if you want to complete

59:00

your Magellanic bird list, this is the

59:02

place you got to come. I should

59:04

mention that we also got Magellanic oyster

59:06

catcher. and we got Magellanic Snipe on

59:08

our trip. So we got seven of

59:10

the eight Magellanic birds. We just missed

59:12

that diving petrol. Now I have to

59:14

make it my life's goal to get

59:16

the Magellanic diving petrol. Otherwise my life

59:19

will be a waste. Also in terms

59:21

of just general thoughts about the area,

59:23

it's a sparsely populated part of the

59:25

world, so you have most of the

59:27

population in the towns that you pass

59:29

through, which there aren't that many. So

59:31

that's where most of the people are,

59:33

otherwise it feels like a pretty empty

59:35

landscape. There are lots of ranches and

59:38

things, but the population density is low,

59:40

and it is, it feels like a...

59:42

part of the world to travel through.

59:44

I've traveled through with a group as

59:46

a tour guy but also independently and

59:48

I've never had any problems. It always

59:50

feels safe. People are friendly and even

59:52

on the highways people don't drive all

59:54

that aggressively I have found I feel

59:56

like it's pretty chill within reason. So

59:59

yeah I think I think it's an

1:00:01

inviting place for a naturalist or a

1:00:03

birder to visit whether that's with a

1:00:05

group or on their own. So yeah,

1:00:07

in case it's not obvious, yeah, two

1:00:09

thumbs way up for Patagonia from this

1:00:11

guy. So I will leave you with

1:00:13

a little vignette, a little thing that

1:00:15

happened on our last full day in

1:00:17

Patagonia, where you just, we were just

1:00:20

like, yeah, this is, this is happening.

1:00:22

We are truly in Patagonia now. So

1:00:24

we're driving on the way west from

1:00:26

El Calafate to Los Glaciaras National Park,

1:00:28

and we're still kind of in an

1:00:30

open landscape of an open landscape of

1:00:32

step, but that's starting to transition into

1:00:34

woodland or forest. And we see some

1:00:36

commotion out in a field off the

1:00:38

side of the road. So we pull

1:00:41

the bus over, we get out, we

1:00:43

get the scope, and what is it?

1:00:45

There is a big group of birds

1:00:47

in a pile on something. And pretty

1:00:49

quickly we figure out, okay, it's probably

1:00:51

a sheep carcass, and these are scavengers,

1:00:53

so we've got condors, Andean condors, that

1:00:55

are kind of sitting off to the

1:00:57

side, but then on the sheep, there

1:00:59

are a whole bunch of crested caracaracaracaras,

1:01:02

and some chimago caracaras. like dozens of

1:01:04

them. And I would say there are

1:01:06

15 condors. And it looks like maybe

1:01:08

the condors have already had their fill

1:01:10

and their crops are full and they're

1:01:12

just hanging out digesting for a while.

1:01:14

Maybe they're considering going back for seconds

1:01:16

or thirds. Because remember from I think

1:01:18

it was episode two, I talked about

1:01:21

the dominance hierarchy of these scavenging birds,

1:01:23

right? So the condors being big bruisers,

1:01:25

they come in. They tend to be

1:01:27

the first birds that can dominate the

1:01:29

kill and then... Later on, the car

1:01:31

cars can come in and get the

1:01:33

scraps. Anyway, there we are. We're standing

1:01:35

on the side of the road. We've

1:01:37

got the scope and our binocular. And

1:01:39

this is one of the better looks

1:01:42

we get at condors. Some of them

1:01:44

are spreading their wings with big, bold,

1:01:46

black and white patterns. We see some

1:01:48

of the males with their reddish skin

1:01:50

on their heads and big crests. And

1:01:52

all the adults have a big white

1:01:54

ruff of feathers around the base of

1:01:56

their neck. It's really beautiful, amazing animals.

1:01:58

And so we're enjoying that, just taking

1:02:00

our time, soaking it in. And then

1:02:03

here comes another bird. We see this

1:02:05

black-chested buzzard buzzard equal swoop swooping, swoopoping

1:02:07

swooping. and that was one of the

1:02:09

target birds we'd been looking for. We'd

1:02:11

only had kind of distant views of

1:02:13

it, and here it comes, it lands

1:02:15

among the Karakaras, a great beautiful raptor,

1:02:17

and it just kind of surveys the

1:02:19

scene for a while, and it flies

1:02:21

away. I didn't seem to eat anything,

1:02:24

I don't know what it was doing

1:02:26

there, but I think that species does

1:02:28

sometimes scavenge. And then we keep scanning

1:02:30

around, and we actually then see some

1:02:32

gray foxes that are looking towards the

1:02:34

kill, they're kind of skulking forward, poking

1:02:36

around and getting some food and then

1:02:38

one actually does get quite close. And

1:02:40

then, you know, if you look around

1:02:42

a little further, oh yeah, there are

1:02:45

some lesser Rhea over there, some Rias,

1:02:47

there are some guenacos over there, so,

1:02:49

you know, then you got the Andes,

1:02:51

in the Andes, in the Andes, in

1:02:53

the Andes, in the Andes, in the

1:02:55

Andes, in the Andes, in the distance,

1:02:57

with the Andes, with the Andes, with

1:02:59

the Andes, with the Andes, with the

1:03:01

Andes, with the Andes, with the Andes,

1:03:04

with the Andes, with the Andes, with

1:03:06

the Andes, with the Andes, with the

1:03:08

Andes, with the Andes, with the Andes,

1:03:10

with the Andes, with the Andes, with

1:03:12

the Andes, with the Andes, with the

1:03:14

Andes, with the Andes, with the Andes,

1:03:16

with the Andes, with the Andes, with

1:03:18

the Andes, with the And And yeah,

1:03:20

and things are great here. I'm happy,

1:03:22

life is good. I am in Chile

1:03:25

for another couple days. There are some

1:03:27

cool parks around here, some volcanoes, snow-covered

1:03:29

volcanoes with forest on the slopes. I've

1:03:31

got a few more target birds that

1:03:33

maybe I'll pick up if I'm lucky.

1:03:35

And yeah, I think that's going to

1:03:37

be it for this episode, from this

1:03:39

From the Field episode. I'll be home

1:03:41

soon and getting back to the sort

1:03:43

of normal episodes. But yeah, this is,

1:03:46

I've done this a few times now

1:03:48

and I will continue to do it

1:03:50

when I'm able to on my longer

1:03:52

travels. Thank you so much for listening

1:03:54

for like cariously through Patagonia

1:03:56

with me today

1:03:58

and I will see

1:04:00

you and talk

1:04:02

to you in the

1:04:04

next episode. Cheers Cheers.