Best Breeding Season Yet

The Little Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus nanus) is endemic to Galápagos and depends on native vegetation ecosystems to promote prey abundance and diversity to survive. For this flycatcher, survival depends on healthy understory habitat. The birds feed by darting through open spaces beneath the forest canopy, catching moths, flies, caterpillars, and spiders, on the ground and mid-air. But invasive plants — especially blackberry bushes — rapidly cover the forest floor, creating dense tangles that make hunting difficult and reduce the birds’ ability to feed themselves and their nestlings.

Managing that habitat is painstaking work. CDF field assistants and park rangers spend long days manually and mechanically cutting invasive plants throughout the year, often in muddy and difficult conditions. Behind the flycatcher’s rebound lies years of hands-on restoration efforts, because blackberry regrows quickly, this requires constant work and maintenance. Today, around 19 hectares of Scalesia pedunculata forest are actively managed and restored through the collaborative efforts of the CDF’s Scalesia Forest Restoration Program and the National Park.

At the same time, the birds face another major threat: Philornis downsi, the invasive “Avian Vampire Fly.” The parasite lays eggs inside bird nests, and its larvae feed on the blood and tissues of nestlings, causing extremely high nestling mortality across multiple Galápagos bird species.

For years, conservation teams treated individual nests by hand or long poles using bird-safe insecticides — a highly labor-intensive process that required carrying long ladders to get as close as possible to the nest to apply the treatment. But in recent years, researchers developed and refined a less invasive and more effective solution known as the “self-fumigation” technique.

The method uses dispensers containing cotton, feathers, and other natural fibers treated with a bird-safe insecticide. The flycatchers collect the material themselves and weave it directly into their nests, protecting nestlings from the parasite without requiring scientists to intervene during nesting.

Over time, researchers adapted the technique to better match the birds’ nesting behavior, dramatically improving its success.

Researchers say the combination of habitat restoration, invasive species management, and improved nest protection strategies is helping create safer breeding conditions for the species on Santa Cruz — though significant challenges remain.