Cerro Sombrero, Chile

Cerro Sombrero
village
Street in Cerro Sombrero
Region	Magallanes
Province	Tierra del Fuego
Municipalidad	Primavera
Comuna	Primavera
Government
• Type	Municipalidad
• Alcalde	Blagomir Brztilo Avendaño
Population (2002 census [2])
• Total	687
Time zone	Chilean Standard (UTC−04:00)
• Summer (DST)	Chilean Daylight (UTC−03:00)
Area code(s)	Country + town = 56 + ?
Climate	Cfc

Cerro Sombrero (Spanish for "Hat Hill") is a village (Spanish: aldea) in southern Chile. It is located in the Primavera commune in the Magallanes Region, in the northern part of Tierra del Fuego, about 125 km from Porvenir. According to the 2002 census, it had 687 inhabitants.

The village is located near a small hill from which it received its name. It was founded in 1958 as a residential and services centre for the national Petroleum Company (ENAP) in Tierra del Fuego, with over 150 dwellings, a gym, swimming pool, bowling alley, botanical garden, movie theatre, church, hospital, airport, warehouses, supermarket, restaurant, lodgings and gas station, in addition to the ENAP offices. This settlement is a natural entry point to the Chilean-Argentine Tierra del Fuego area. Nearby is Bahía Lomas, a place of importance within the region with nesting places for a wide variety of shorebird species, both resident and migratory. Nearby Río del Oro, in the middle of the Tierra del Fuego steppe, is a popular fishing area for a variety of trout.

Cerro Sombrero has the typical "cold steppe climate" of Patagonia with low annual rainfall, fluctuating between a minimum of 250 mm, increasingly slightly near the south west coast (Felipe Bay), and reaching 400 mm on the east coast, near the Atlantic.

Numerous species of birds can be observed in the area, including two kinds of sheldgoose, the cauquén colorado (ruddy-headed goose) and piuquén (also known as the ganso cordillerano or Andean goose), the pato juarjual, a kind of crested duck, the Chilean pintail, the coscoroba swan, the black-necked swan, and the Chilean flamingo. Migratory species also nest in the area, including the bandurria (black-faced ibis) and the queltehue (southern lapwing). Some come only in the summer, including the chorlo (rufous-chested plover), the playero (dunlin) and the falaropo picofino (red-necked phalarope).