Seashore and Coastal Wetlands
With more than 4000 Km. (about 2500 miles) of coast in the South Pacific, Chile has almost every imaginable seaside environment, from sandy and rocky beaches to steep cliffs to intertidal mudflats to pebble shore to dunes to river deltas to sheltered harbours, you name it. The Coastal Avifauna is as diverse as these habitats, and besides the local populations of Birds that are found throughout the year, there are a number of summer migrants which visit our coasts from around September to April, escaping from the Northern winter to feed and rest in our coasts, gathering energy reserves for their return trips to their breeding grounds. The coasts of Central Chile are home to many Seabirds, Waders, Shorebirds and other Birds, like the Humboldt Penguin, Peruvian Pelican, Peruvian Gannet (Booby), Neotropic Cormorant, Guanay Shag, Red-legged Shag, Black-crowned Night Heron, Turkey Vulture, Peregrine Falcon, Burrowing Owl, American Oystercatcher, Snowy Plover, Collared Plover, Hudsonian Godwit, Whimbrel, Ruddy Turnstone, Surfbird, Sanderling, White-rumped Sandpiper, Baird’s Sandpiper, Red Phalarope, Chilean Skua, Gray Gull, Kelp Gull, Brown-hooded Gull, Franklin’s Gull, Elegant Tern, South American Tern, Inca Tern, Black Skimmer and Chilean Seaside Cinclodes (Endemic).
The coastal plain in Central Chile is formed mainly by alluvial deposits from the rivers that run westward from the Andes. These rivers have carved many basins giving birth to a number of lakes and ponds as well as marshes and swamps, and as they reach the sea they turn into broad estuaries with many particular habitats from mudflats to dunes to reed-covered banks, habitats which are very productive and exhibit a wide diversity of life forms, with Birds occupying, of course, a very conspicuous place among them. Some of them live in almost all of these habitats, while others inhabit only very restricted environments. Among them we find the White-tufted Grebe, Silvery Grebe, Great Grebe, Pied-billed Grebe, Neotropic Cormorant, White-necked (Cocoi) Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Black-crowned Night Heron, Stripe-backed Bittern, Black-necked Swan, Chiloe Wigeon, Speckled Teal, Yellow-billed Pintail, Cinnamon Teal, Red Shoveler, Black-headed Duck, Lake Duck, Ruddy Duck, Cinereous Harrier, Plumbeous Rail, Spot-flanked Gallinule, White-winged Coot, Red-gartered Coot, Red-fronted Coot, American Oystercatcher, White-backed Stilt, Southern Lapwing, Snowy Plover, Collared Plover, Two-banded Plover, Rufous-chested Dotterel, South American Snipe, Whimbrel, Hudsonian Godwit, Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs, Ruddy Turnstone, Willet, Red Knot, Sanderling, Baird’s Sandpiper, Brown-hooded Gull, South American Tern, Black Skimmer, Burrowing Owl, Chilean Seaside Cinclodes (Endemic), Bar-winged Cinclodes, Wren-like Rushbird, Many-coloured Rush Tyrant, Dark-faced Ground Tyrant, Rufous-backed Ground Tyrant, Spectacled Tyrant, Yellow-winged Blackbird, Chilean Swallow and Blue-and-White Swallow.
Grey Gull |
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Inca Tern |
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Rufous-chested Dotterel |
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Cocoi Heron |
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Coscoroba Swan
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Many-coloured Rush-Tyrant |
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