In 2016, after five years of wildlife work in southern Chile, SouthWild discovered an enormous roost of Andean Condors only 45 minutes from the Punta Arenas airport. In that year, we entered into an exclusive partnership with the landowners, the Concha Family, and started offering organized photo tours to the cliff. Since then, thousands of guests have visited and marveled at the exceptionally-viewable flock of condors there.
The most amazing feature of this cliff is the ability to drive or hike up top to a spot from which one can photograph the condors from above. Normal afternoon numbers of the huge birds at this cliff are 50-90, but on one late afternoon in March 2019, we shattered the world record when we counted 204 of the gigantic scavengers.
Not only can you photograph the birds from above, but on a typical afternoon, you can photograph literally hundreds and thousands of fly-bys below the horizon, rejoicing at this so-called “hero shot”… Condors from above, and with a background of sea channels and snow-capped peaks!
By 2019, many of the condors had become so relaxed about visiting SouthWild guests that on a number of occasions, we were able to approach to within 10 meters of condors sitting on the ground. The huge birds at Condor Cliffs now are tied with one inaccessible location in Colombia for the title of the tamest wild condors on Earth. Talk with us about details for a customized visit.
