Bird Watching Mantagua Wetland & Ritoque Beach Tour from Santiago

In the morning around 9:00 a.m., we will pick you up from a hotel to embark on a unique tour that will take you through the impressive wetland, located on the southern tail of the dunes of Ritoque and about 30 kilometers from Valparaiso.

These cohabitating central Chilean coastal ecosystems preserve the natural wealth inside the Valparaiso Region. This birdwatching day offers not only the opportunity to meet typical Chilean central coast landscapes that are overseen comfortably but also the chance to learn about the unique biodiversity of this area.
The tour begins at the Posada Del Parque tiny private reserve. This local scientists and volunteer initiative introduces us to the richest in biodiversity part of the vast dunes of Ritoque. Look at a landscape sculpted by thousands of years of interaction between wind, river, and ocean. These coastal dunes that the small river divides and nourishes, nowadays, are the most significant preserved in Valparaiso Bay; they were formed by sand deposition carried with the winds from the coast.
Along the way, the view you will see widens towards the imponent Pacific, and the walk through rolling terrain offers a natural spectacle of wetland ornamented with plants, sand, and the sea.

A Wildlife Refuge you will explore near Valparaiso:
The Wildlife and birding in Valparaiso Bay tour highlight is the passage through the Mantagua waterlogged depression, part of a network of coastal wetlands in central Chile. This crucial ecosystem supports a high bird species richness and represents one of the region's wealthiest areas in terms of flora and fauna. It is home to more than dozens of species of birds, both resident and migratory. On the way, keeping prudent silence, acute attention, and a bit of good luck, you will have the opportunity to observe birds that frequent the calm waters of the wetland.
Among the species for birding on this piece of intact Valparaiso natural environment, depending on the season, we would sanderling, eurasian curlew, sandpiper, grey gull, turkey vulture, white-winged coot, blackish oystercatcher, black-necked swan, herons, wild ducks, kingfisher, grebe, two-banded plover, white-backed stilt, neotropic cormorant, egrets, cinnamon teal, white-tailed kite, chimango caracara and more.
Speaking about some exciting and unique mammals of Valparaiso Bay closest floodplains adjoining area, recently and surprisingly for a community, the smallest felid species native to Chile, kodkod, has been captured by night cameras.

Cohabiting flora and fauna that we can observe in tour:
The estuary is home to hydrophilic plants that inhabit the body of water, like the American frogbit, humped bladderwort, a tiny carnivorous plant humped bladderwort, and the floating fern (duck flower). An extended and curvy river bank is surrounded by mini-forests mixed by associations of halophytic plants dominated by giant bulrush sedge, lesser bulrush, jonquil, and carrizo, aquatic plants that are essential to the ecosystem. These plants provide shelter, a nutritive environment, and food to numerous species of insects and other animals. The prosperity of abundant native flora is also vital to the health of the wetland, as it contributes to water filtration, sanity, and soil stability.
In addition to waterfowl, terrestrial biodiversity is also surprising, as is psamophyllous vegetation and native scrubland. Between the dunes and the wetland, on our tour map, it is expected to meet species adapted to cool coastal conditions, winds, extreme isolation, and salty cold fogs. The Chuquiraga evergreen shrubs, sea daffodil, and succulent plant known by the common name sea fig are just some of the plants that bloom in the Valparaiso Bay preserved terrains inside an arid environment. Thanks to the density of these plant communities, some small mammals, such as the Patagonian grey fox and various species of lizards and rodents, live cautiously and discreetly among the bushes and dunes.

Arrive back in Santiago at 5:00 p.m.