Overview

At the end of January 2006 we spent a week on the Falklands looking at wildlife on Saunders Island, Sea Lion Island, and Stanley and Volunteer Point on East Falkland. This was one of our greatest wildlife experiences anywhere. The Falklands are absolutely amazing for birds. While you don't get an enormously long list of birds, you do get a superabundance of penguins, Black-browed Albatross, Skuas, Sheathbills, and variety of scarce and endemic birds. This page includes a summary of our trip with links to various companies and locations. We've posted several galleries from the trip, including a general gallery, pictures of the the four regularly breeding penguin species (Magellanic, Rockhopper, Gentoo, and King) and Black-browed Albatross. We're using a fairly routine camera but, as the pictures show, many of the animals come quite close, if you sit and wait.

Practicalities

If you do decide to visit the Falklands, book everything ahead of time as facilities are extremely limited. Bring a 100% effective rain coat, rain pants, and lots of layers. Rain and temperature vary widely, but cold blowing winds are nearly ever-present. The Falklands was effectively run as a private wool companies property until after the Falklands War. To this day, the wool trade is a large component of the local economy. However, like wool producers everywhere, farmers in the Falklands are finding it increasingly difficult to make a living. (Prices for wool have not been rising much for twenty years but all of the costs of producing wool have risen steadily.) Some of the outer islands, by luck or design, retain good populations of breeding birds. Increasingly, farmers with interesting animals on their paddocks are supplementing their incomes through tourism. The owners of Saunders Island told us they now generate more money from tourists than sheep.

The tourist infrastructure is very limited in the Falklands, particularly once you're away from Stanley. The outer islands are reached by a small fleet of planes that hold about six passengers. Reaching and booking accommodation and tours in Stanley is not difficult but it can be awkward to contact some of the outer island facilities. (Short range radio is the primary form of contact for some of the farms.) We used International Tours and Travel, based in Stanley, to do our local booking.

The only flights on and off the islands are a weekly flight by LAN Chile and a charter from the UK, stopping on Ascension Island, funded primarily to support the troops stationed around the Falklands. LAN would schedule more flights but the Argentine government will not grant permission for more flights through their airspace. Argentina still maintains its claims to the Falklands and relations are not particularly warm. Argentinean maps show The Falklands (Las Malvinas), South Georgia, and a large wedge of Antarctica as sovereign Argentine territory. In Argentina, particularly around the military base in Rio Gallegos, there are monuments to the war and large signs proclaiming Las Malvinas son Argentinas!. (The Falklands are Argentinean.) On the Falklands, there are enormous uncleared minefields fenced off, a legacy of the war.

Bird Distribution

Th birds of the Falklands are closely connected to the birds of southern South America but with important differences in behavior and distribution. The islands are far enough that some founding populations have speciated, such as the endemic Falkland Steamerduck Tachyeres brachypterus and the Cobb's Wren Troglodytes cobbi. More interesting than the endemics are the birds that are vanishingly rare on the mainland. Because of their isolation, the Falklands support populations of birds that are scarce or absent from other locations. For example, the Falklands are home to something like 80% of the world breeding population of the Black-browed Albatross (Thalassarche melanophris) and are effectively the only place to see the "Johnny Rook" Striated Caracara Phalcoboenus australis. Within the Falklands, the bird lists for individual islands vary significantly. The existence of seabird colonies and various small passerines depends both on natural features of the islands and the presence or absence of introduced animals. Seabirds, and birds that have long existed on isolated islands, tend to be naive. This makes watching them a real pleasure but leaves them ill-equiped to deal with rats, cats, and dogs. Those islands that lack such animals have a far longer list of birds. For example, Sea Lion Island has Cobb's Wren Troglodytes cobbi and the "Tussockbird" Blackish Cinclodes Cinclodes antarcticus, both absent from Saunders Island. The Falklands Convervation group in the UK, with funding from the World Wildlife Fund publish the Atlas of Breeding Birds of the Falkland Islands. If planning a trip for birds, make sure to include one of the islands that hosts populations of the small birds, such as Sea Lion or Carcass. The trip list, below, gives some indication of which species are widespread and which more localized.

Saunders Island

Saunders Island is a working sheep farm which also hosts colonies of four different kinds of penguins (Magellanic, Rockhopper, Gentoo, and King), Rock Shags, Imperial Shags and Black-browed Albatross. There are three places to stay on the island, the main settlement, a tourist cabin at The Neck, and in a converted shipping container at The Rookery. Due to scheduling conflicts, we ended up booking two nights at the shipping container. On the plus side, you're totally on your own...apart from thousands of birds. In one direction, you can walk downhill to the beach and see Gentoos and a big Magellanic colony. In other other direction along the cliffs, you can see thousands of Black-Browed Albatross in flight and a large mixed colony of shags and Rockhopper Penguins. Around the colony, or down at the water's edge where the birds come in, we also saw Brown Skua and Snowy Sheathbills. Along the cliffs there are hundreds of Albatross nests and numerous small parties of Kelp and Upland Geese. Long-tailed Meadowlarks, with their lovely scarlet breasts, appeared here and there. Overall, it's a stunning spot and quite magical to be so isolated from people while surrounded by animals. If you're staying in the settlement, you can come out to The Rookery on a day trip or (long) day hike. Note that the drive out gives you a clear idea of what Land Rovers are actually built for.

The downside of staying at The Rookery is that you'll be sleeping in a converted storage container without a shower. There's a peat stove, a narrow bunk bed, and an outhouse. (Warning: the outhouse locks from the outside, not the inside, which can lead to unpleasant results if one of you makes a mistake.) Despite what our Stanley-based tourist agent told us, The Neck is not a reasonable walking distance from The Rookery. (It's about 8km of rocky cliffs.) Because one of the small bridges leading to The Rookery had washed out, we had to spend our second night in the main settlement. This was very comfortable with a hot shower, full kitchen, and living room. Around the main homestead, we saw a single King Penguin, many Steamer Ducks and Kelp Geese.

Sea Lion Island

Sea Lion Island is a former sheep farm that's been converted to a wildlife-lover's tourist resort. The birds and animals are fantastic and there's a large remnant tussock community. There's no Albatross colony, but there are thousands of Gentoos and Rockhoppers, readily visible Striated Caracaras ("Johnny Rook"), ponds for vagrants like Silvery Grebe, breeding Elephant Seals and a great network or roads and trails for walking around. Since there are no rats or cats, Sea Lion Island has some of the harder-to-see birds, such as the endemic Cobb's Wren and the Blackish Cinclodes ("Tussockbird" - pictured.) Perhaps the greatest thing about Sea Lion is watching the penguins come in from the sea. Thousands of Gentoos breed on Sea Lion and you can watch birds riding in on waves, getting out on the beach and walking back to their young. Some areas near the beach have been beaten bare by the footsteps of the Gentoos.

Sea Lion Lodge is run as a resort and includes comfortable rooms, three meals, tea, and warm water. There is no smoking on the island, apart from a single enclosed smoking area, since its covered in peat. Throughout the Falklands, the islands are, or should be, covered in peat. If set alight, whole islands can burn. Sometimes slowly, sometimes taking years to be consumed.

It's worth mentioning that the lodge was no full of birders. In fact, in a week on the Falklands we saw one birding couple from the US and a birding group from Sweden. Most tourists were either general-interest tourists or military personnel with some time off. It's easy to get the impression from reading trip reports that an area is likely to be crowded with birders but, outside of Europe, the USA, and some very specialized destinations, this never seems to be the case. It certainly wasn't in the Falklands.

East Falkland and Volunteer Point

We spent two nights in Stanley and did a day trip to Volunteer Point, a spot on private land that includes the world's northernmost colony of King Penguins. With over 500 birds, it's an impressive site. Judging by film footage, King Penguins look, act, and sound very much like Emperor Penguins. At Volunteer Point, the Kings stay very near together making a wonderful buzzing/humming noise. On the beach near the King colony, parties of King and Gentoo penguins can be seen coming in or returning to the sea. As beautiful as penguins are on land, there's nothing like seeing them flying through the water.

Stanley is a nice, small town. There isn't a great deal to do there, but it's pleasant for a walk and a meal. There are plenty of gift shops and the visitor's centre has a good selection of natural history related titles.

Trip List

The list below indicates which birds we saw on each island. Although the overall number of species is low compared to a visit to a tropical destination, the abundance and accessibility of the birds were peerless.

Common Name	Species Name	Saunders	Sea Lion	E. Falkland
King Penguin	Aptenodytes patagonicus	1	1	Colony
Gentoo Penguin	Pygoscelis papua	Colony	Colony	Colony
Rockhopper Penguin	Eudyptes chrysocome	Colony	Colony
Magellanic Penguin	Spheniscus magellanicus	Colony	Colony	Colony
Silvery Grebe	Podiceps occipitalis	x
Black-browed Albatross	Thalassarche melanophris	Colony	In flight
Antarctic Giant Petrel	Macronectes giganteus	x	x	x
Rock Shag	Phalacrocorax magellanicus	Colony	Colony	x
Imperial Shag	Phalacrocorax atriceps	Colony
Black-crowned Night-Heron	Nycticorax nycticorax		x
Upland Goose	Chloephaga picta	x	x	x
Kelp Goose	Chloephaga hybrida	x	x	x
Ruddy-headed Goose	Chloephaga rubidiceps	x	x
Falkland Steamerduck	Tachyeres brachypterus	x	x	x
Chiloe Wigeon	Anas sibilatrix		x
Speckled Teal	Anas flavirostris	x
Crested Duck	Anas specularioides	x	x	x
Yellow-billed Pintail	Anas georgica	x
Turkey Vulture	Cathartes aura	x	x	x
Red-backed Hawk	Buteo polyosoma	x		x
Striated Caracara	Phalcoboenus australis		x
Magellanic Oystercatcher	Haematopus leucopodus	x	x	x
Blackish Oystercatcher	Haematopus ater		x	x
Two-banded Plover	Charadrius falklandicus		x	x
Rufous-chested Dotterel	Charadrius modestus	x	x	x
South American Snipe	Gallinago paraguaiae		x
White-rumped Sandpiper	Calidris fuscicollis			x
Snowy Sheathbill	Chionis alba	x	x
Brown Skua	Stercorarius antarctica	x	x	x
Dolphin Gull	Larus scoresbii	x	x	x
Kelp Gull	Larus dominicanus	x	x	x
Brown-hooded Gull	Larus maculipennis		x
Franklin's Gull	Larus pipixcan	x	x
South American Tern	Sterna hirundinacea	?	x	?
Blackish Cinclodes	Cinclodes antarcticus		x
Dark-faced Ground-Tyrant	Muscisaxicola macloviana	x	x
Correndera Pipit	Anthus correndera	x		x
Cobb's Wren	Troglodytes cobbi		x
Austral Thrush	Turdus falcklandii	x	x	x
Long-tailed Meadowlark	Sturnella loyca	x		x
House Sparrow	Passer domesticus			x

Books

The book recommendations listed below may help, if you are considering or taking a trip. If you want a bird checklist with columns for each island, you can download them here in Excel or PDF format.

The Falklands & South Georgia Island - Lonely Planet (2005) by Tony Wheeler. (Amazon US | UK) This is a useful, compact, and reasonably up-to-date guide to the Falklands, written by one of the founders of Lonely Planet. Definitely worth having.

Birds of Chile (2003) by Alvaro Jaramillo (Amazon US | UK). This excellent field guide covers Easter Island, Chile, the Falklands, and the Antarctic peninsula. We were grateful to have this book every day of our trip. This is a thoroughly worthwhile guide with great plates, detailed notes, and a modern layout. Arm-wavingly emphatic recommendation.

Birds of Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego & Antarctic Peninsula (2003) by E. Couve and C. Vidal (Amazon US | UK). This photographic guide to the birds of the region is different form most photographic guides I've seen. On the plus side, the species notes are incredibly detailed and the photographs can be a helpful complement to Birds of Chile, particularly for some of the harder to distinguish groups. On the negative side, the photographs are not all to a high standard, and the passerines have been moved to the front of the book, so it's impossible to flip through the pages quickly expecting a standard taxonomic order. We ended up using Birds of Chile all day long and consulted this photo guide at the end of the day, particularly in Patagonia, less so in the Falklands. If you're coming from the US, Amazon does not appear to stock this title. You can try ABA Sales, LA Audubon, or the authors' Web site for current recommendations.

Birds of Southern South America and Antarctica (1998) by Martín de la Peña and Maurice Rumboll (Amazon US | UK). This book is called an "illustrated checklist", which is a fair summary. It has surprisingly good plates, short descriptive notes, and range maps on separate pages in the back. We didn't end up bringing this book along, but would take it on a trip to Argentina.

Birds of Argentina & Uruguay (2004) by Tito Narosky and Dario Yzurieta (Amazon US | UK). This is the standard field guide to the birds of Argentina and covers at least some of the Falkland endemics. If you're used to modern field guides, this book comes as a bit of a shock. The plates are relatively crude with only brief notes. The index organizes common names by species rather then genus, so looking up birds becomes a real hassle. (Magellanic Woodpecker is indexed under "M" instead of "W".) If you do want this book, it seemed to be inexpensive and easily found within Argentina.

BirdLife International published Important Bird Areas of the Falkland Islands in July 2006, after our visit. It sounds like a great book including distribution maps and checklists, but we haven't seen a copy.

Wombat Country