Birds & Bird Watching
Birdwatching is much more satisfying in the Galápagos than on the
mainland, because you do not have to be an expert or avid aficionado to
identify most species and observe their behavior.
Sea birds are one of the simplest and most interesting groups for novice
naturalists in the Galápagos, because they are abundant, active, and
unafraid. Not to mention that sea birds—for their odd yet beautiful
appearance—are the islands' most photographed and reproduced creatures.
• The Blue-Footed Booby is the most notorious creature in the Galápagos due
to its bright blue feet and highly entertaining behavior. Males perform an
elaborate mating dance with distinctive waddling, stomping, posing, and
flapping movements, all accompanied by a love-offering of sticks and twigs.
• The Red-Footed Booby has red feet, blue-gray bill, pinkish facial skin,
and brown outer plumage. Courtship among blue-footed boobies is akin to the
blue-footed variety, but it is performed in trees.
• The Nazca Booby , formerly known as the masked booby, is distinguished
from its booby brothers by its alabaster white feathers, black wing stripe,
and black skin at the base of the bill resembling a Zorro mask.
• Frigatebirds receive their fame from the males' ability to inflate their
red guttural flaps to football-sized balloons as their method of attracting
females. Frigatebirds are also considered kleptoparasites or pirates, since
they steal food from other birds or force them to regurgitate it.
• The Waved Albatross is the largest bird that breeds in Galápagos. Watching
its massive body take flight or completing its courtship display—complete
with pair dancing, rhythmic nodding and bill clacking, and ‘mooing' in
unison—is a truly unforgettable Galápagos experience.
• The Flightless Cormorant is unmistakably recognized by the stubby
vestigial appendages that serve as non-functional wings.
• The endemic Galápagos Penguin is the only species of penguin found north
of the equatorial line that breeds in the tropics. At only 35cm tall, the
Galápagos penguin is also one of the world's smallest penguins.
• The Greater Flamingo is a strange, pink, Caribbean-based bird that makes
artistic mud-designs in lagoons throughout the archipelago. The male
performs its courting ritual—a sensual, flamenco-like dance—in July and
August.
Although there are fewer species of land birds than sea birds in the
Galápagos, they are much more difficult to identify, since almost all of
them are small and dull. As if to overcompensate for being color-challenged,
these birds have a brilliant personality, reacting to humans with
nonchalance, curiosity, or even pestering.
• The thirteen species of Darwin's Finches that are found in the Galápagos
are perhaps the most famous land birds on the islands, given the ecological
significance of differences in species' beak morphology and their links to
feeding behavior. Although they all originated from a single ancestor,
individual species have formed as niche specialists, eating seeds, leaves,
cactus, or insects. One species, the “vampire finch,” drinks the blood of
sea birds. Three other finch species specialize in eating the ticks and
mites off of reptiles. There are even two species—the woodpecker and
mangrove finches—that use twigs or spines as primitive tools to extract
hidden insect larvae or grubs from holes in trees or branches.
• There are four species of mockingbirds , all of which are infamous for
greeting visitors with loud, piercing shrills, impolitely begging for liquid
beverages. The mockingbirds have an extremely interesting social structure,
forming cooperative groups during the breeding season and communal
territories during the rest of the year.
• The Galápagos Hawk is an impressive and fearless dark brown bird of prey.
It follows an unusual, extremely feminist mating system termed “cooperative
polyandry,” which allows each female to mate with up to four males.
The wildlife you will see on your Galapagos tour are completely unaffected
by Galapagos travel visitors . For this reason, there is a restricted number
of visitors permitted into the Galapagos each year, as part of a joint
effort to protect the delicate environmental and ecological equilibrium. The
most sensible method of Galapagos travel is via our cruise ships. The M/V
Galapagos Legend provides 3 night, 4 night and 7 night cruises to select
from, which can also be easily merged with Galapagos travel visits to
neighboring South American locations