The Galapagos Islands have an extraordinary range of birdlife. Most famous, of course, are the finches, which are a clear example of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. No less than 85% of the land birds are endemic to the archipelago, and several of these are endemic to a single island.
In addition, the seabirds include endemic species such as the Galapagos penguin, flightless cormorant and the elegant swallow-tailed gull.
Flightless Cormorant
Given their limited range, it is not surprising that the populations of some of the Galapagos species have always been small. For example, mangrove finches and lava gulls have populations of less than 1,000 individual birds. The endemic birds of Galapagos, therefore, need careful conservation, as small populations are especially vulnerable to such threats as the loss of habitat, the increasingly frequent fluctuations in local climate, and the introduction to Galapagos of predators, competitors and new diseases.
CDF Fact sheets on Galapagos native and endemic birds
Galapagos finches
Mangrove finch
Galapagos penguin
Galapagos storm petrel
Waved albatross
Mockingbirds
Floreana mockingbird