We will have an early start (6.30am) in order to leave Santiago in direction to the Andes, before the rush hour. We will have the whole day to explore the surroundings of El Yeso river and the homonymous reservoir. We have planned a few stops along this road in order to find a few endemic and specialties such as Crag Chilia, Moustached Turca and White-sided Hillstar.
The birding is very productive in this area, and we’ll hopefully be rewarded with sightings of Andean Condors, Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle, Mountain Caracara and several other Andean specialties such as Black-winged Ground-Dove, Grey-flanked Cinclodes, Black-billed Shrike-Tyrant, Rufous-banded Miner, Greater Yellow-Finch and Yellow-rumped Siskin.
The setting of El Yeso Reservoir is simply breathtaking. Careful scanning of the surrounding grasslands and streams may produce the stunning Diademed Sandpiper-Plover, our main target species for the day. This is one of the lowest spots to find it (2,600m / 8,000ft) along its entire range though the Andes. Besides this exceptional bird, we hope to find other interesting species such as Grey-breasted Seedsnipe, Scale-throated Earthcreeper and Creamy-rumped Miner. This is a lovely mountain spot where we will also have chances for Torrent Duck and flocking Mountain Parakeets. Birding El Yeso Reservoir.
