South America

South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern subregion of the Americas. The continent is generally delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia-Panama border. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate. South America is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest. The continent is generally taken to include twelve sovereign states: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela; two dependent territories: the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; and one internal territory: French Guiana. In addition, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Ascension Island (dependency of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a British Overseas Territory), Bouvet Island (dependency of Norway), Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago may also be considered parts of South America but Fatbirder treats them as Central America and Caribbean respectively.

South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometres (6,890,000 square miles). Its population as of 2021 has been estimated at more than 442 million people. South America ranks fourth in area (after Asia, Africa, and North America) and fifth in population (after Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America). Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with almost half of the continent’s population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela and Peru. In recent decades, Brazil has also generated half of the continent’s GDP and has become the continent’s first regional power.

Most of the population lives near the continent’s western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. The geography of western South America is dominated by the Andes mountains; in contrast, the eastern part contains both highland regions and vast lowlands where rivers such as the Amazon, Orinoco and Paraná flow. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, except for a large part of the Southern Cone located in the middle latitudes.

Angel Falls – ©Jeanpaul Razzouk CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

South America is home to several superlatives, including, the world’s second highest uninterrupted waterfall, Angel Falls in Venezuela; the highest single-drop waterfall Kaieteur Falls in Guyana; the largest river by volume, the Amazon River; the longest mountain range, the Andes (whose highest mountain is Aconcagua at 6,962 m or 22,841 ft); the driest non-polar place on earth, the Atacama Desert; the wettest place on earth, López de Micay in Colombia; the largest rainforest, the Amazon rainforest; the highest capital city, La Paz, Bolivia; the highest commercially navigable lake in the world, Lake Titicaca; and, excluding research stations in Antarctica, the world’s southernmost permanently inhabited community, Puerto Toro, Chile.

Lake Titicaca – ©Francesco Bailo Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Physiographically, South America also includes some of the nearby islands, but geopolitically, all the island countries and territories in the Caribbean have generally been grouped as a subregion of North America instead. By contrast, Aves Island (administered by Venezuela) and the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina (San Andrés Island, Providencia Island, and Santa Catalina Island etc., which are administered by Colombia) are politically parts of South American countries but physiographically parts of North America. Other islands often associated with geopolitical South America are the Chiloé Archipelago and Robinson Crusoe Island (both administered by Chile), Easter Island (culturally a part of Oceania, also administered by Chile), the Galápagos Islands (administered by Ecuador, sometimes considered part of Oceania), and Tierra del Fuego (split between Argentina and Chile). In the Atlantic Ocean, Brazil administers Fernando de Noronha, Trindade and Martim Vaz, and the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago, while the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (biogeographically and hydrologically associated with Antarctica)  have been administered as two British Overseas Territories under the Crown, whose sovereignty over the islands is disputed by Argentina.

All of the world’s major climate zones are present in South America. Its major mineral resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum. All South American countries are presidential republics with the exception of Suriname, a parliamentary republic. French Guiana is a French overseas department, while the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are British Overseas Territories.

South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on Earth. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, with Brazil estimated to contain 10% of Earth’s species.

Birding South America

South America is the continent with countries boasting the biggest lists of avifauna… and, in part, it is still wild enough to be turning up new species. Both Peru and Colombia boast as hosting much as 20% of known bird species. From the High Andes with human settlements higher than anywhere else to the river deltas and coastal mangroves, cloud forest and rainforest, desert and pampas the habitat ranges are also as diverse as anywhere on earth. From the tiny hummingbirds to the giant condors and rheas South America has enough birds in every ecological niche to excite birders everywhere.

However, whilst South America has the most diverse avifauna and an incredible range of habitat offering such a wealth of potential to any naturalist it is also a great cause for concern. Rampant logging, slash and burn agriculture, insensitive development and inappropriate mining techniques are doing their best to lay huge areas waste. Some of the most pressing challenges for conservation are right there. Whilst species of birds are still being discovered many more hover on the edge of extinction.