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[SABN] Galapgos, a dream come true.5

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Subject: [SABN] Galapgos, a dream come true.5
From: "Wim Vader" <>
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2006 13:30:56 +0200


                        GALAPAGOS, A DREAM COME TRU.5. THE SMALL BIRDS (NO 
WONDER DARWIN GOT CONFUSED!)


The Galapagos islands and charles darwin's visit there on the beagle in the 
1830's are justly famous in the history of evolution, and the endemic finches 
(Geospizidae) occurring here (12 spp in the Galapagos archipelagi, nr 13 on 
Cocos Island off Costa Rica) are now generally known as Darwin's finches.

In reality Darwin was during his visit mostly interested in the differences 
between the large tortoises from the different islands, as well as those among 
the mockingbirds. He did collect also a largish series of the finches, which he 
thought contained representatives from three different families of birds, nbut 
he mixed up his collections from the different islands. Gould, the 
ornithologist who described the Beagle's birds, could only untangle the mix 
with the help of smaller but more exactly labeled, series of finches collected 
by Captain Fitzroy himself, and by Darwin's assistent in the field, the young 
sailor Sym Covington.

When arriving at Baltra airport, we had no luggage, so all had to buy sunhatd 
and T-shirts in the many small shops outside. Here we soon got to know the 
darwinæ's Finches, and to realize that they are indeed an utterly confusing 
bunch. A flock of them scrounged like sparrows round the airport buildings and 
the shops, and they look and behave indeed quite sparrowy, although all are 
conspicuously short-tailed, as if a cat had got their tail. The adult males are 
all black, the femakles and immatures sparrowy brown, and stripy underneath. 
Unfortunately this short colour description is valid for 6 of the 12 galapagos 
species!! Four more have also similar females, but here the males are 
black-hooded rather than all black. In the last three both sexes have the 
female colouration, although somewhat less stripy underneath. Add to this that 
the species often occur in mixed flocks and that the dubtle differences in bill 
shaope and size vary from island to island, and i don't blame darwin at all for 
confusing the critters. After 10 days, with the help of expert guidance and 
f\good fieldguides, I am still quite wobblyand tentative in my identifications. 
The birds themselves are not to blame; they are as tame as most Galapagos birds.

The finches divide into Large, Medium and Small Ground Finches (males all 
black, and especially the last two quite common most places and often in mixed 
flocks), and Large and Common Cactus Finches (males again all black, but these 
birds, indeed often found on cactuses, have narrower and more pointed beaks. 
The names already gaive an inkling that identification might wellbe tricky. The 
last all black species is the Sharp-beaked Finch of the norther islands, the 
famous 'vampyre finch', which we sadly failed to see at Genovesa, as it name 
says, it has a still more sharp beak.

Then there are large, medium and Small Tree Finches (and yes, they may also 
forage on the ground, and the ground finches in the trees!), with black-headed 
adult males, and also the very large-beaked Vegetarian Finch has a black-headed 
male. The small Warbling Finch (which Darwin though was some sort of warbler)is 
comaratively easy to recognize, it flits warbler-like through the trees, is 
quite common on most islands where there is sufficient cover, and also has a 
weak little warbler-like trilling song. The Mangrove Finch is the rarest of 
all, and we never found one, but we did several times come across trhe famous 
Woodpecker Finch, one of the very few tool-using birds. It too is more easy to 
recognize, it is somewhat lighter in overall colour, and forages nuthatch-like 
along the stems and branches of the trees and among its epiphytes. I had hoped 
to see it using a cactus spine to probe for wood-boring insects, the trick for 
which it is justly famous, but had to be content with the next best thing, 
seeing one fly off with a spine in its beak----already a memorable moment!

These finches are everywhere on the islands, they fuss and scrounge like 
sparrows in the villages and the sidewalk cafés, they are found among the sea 
lions on the sandy beaches, as well as in the scalesia forest, and among the 
large tortoises in the highlands. And for me they are still quite confusing!

Much muchg easier is the situation among the parulids, the New World Warblers. 
No 'confusing fall warblers' here, every warbler you spot, from the intertidal 
to the top of the volcanoes, is a Yellow Warbler, of the resident Galapagos 
race. They are everywhere, from the intertidal (I wonder what they eat there, 
they forage a lot intertidally, among the sandpipers and plovers) to the lave 
fields, the Scalesia forests, the farming belt and the highlands. They give 
vivid flashes of yellow in an otherwise often somewhat bleak terrain, and they 
have a very pleasnt little song strophe, which every time I hear it, reminds me 
of the european Willow Warbler, although it is definitely more upbeat.

The other quinessemtial small birds of the galapagos are the mockingbirds, 
definite personalities. As Darwin already realized, there are clear differences 
abetween the mockingbirds of the different islands. They have now been divided 
into 4 species, of which one the Charles Mockingbirds, now is almost extinct. 
It is now confined to two small islets, of course inaccessible to birders. So 
we went through the archetypical birders ritual, of circling the islets in 
panga, until we saw the silhouette of the mockingbirds on top of one of the 
large Opuntias; close enough to see that this was an unmistakable mockingbird, 
but I should think not really close enough to see all the subtle differences 
between these and the other Galapagos mockingbird species. Still, we all 
congratulated each other and solemnly ticked a new lifebird! It is easy to 
understand that nbirders seem a bit strange to many people! There are no such 
probelms with the funny Hood Mockingbird, also an endemic on the island of 
Española (Hood); these birds come flying towards you as soon as you enter the 
group territory and almost beg for water, being not averse to insopecting your 
backpack thorougly in the process. All these mockingbirds have a large variety 
of call, which they may jumble together to a rather unmelodious, but somehow 
quite cozy song. They are widespread and common, although usually not numerous.

This almost completes the list of small birds in the galapagos. Not quite; 
there are two tyrannid flycatchers, the showy red vermilion Flycatcher of the 
highlands, and the more subdued and again very tame Galapagos flycatcher, which 
may be found anywhere. We encountered one during a walk over lava fields, in an 
area virtually without any plant growth at all.
There is also an endemic swallow, the Galapagos Martin, but it is very thin on 
the ground. Riet got the honour to discover the only one we saw during this 
trip. And there are some very small rails, which we never got to see; Moorhens, 
on the other hand, popped up many places, both in the hihgland lakes and swamps 
and inthe brackisk coastal lagoons.

A little bit larger are the endemic Dark-billed Cuckoo, another bird we never 
saw (the drought?), and the introduced Smooth-billed Anis, which have become 
quite common in the farm belt in the highlands. Here they share the dominance 
with another newcomer, the Cattle Egret, which has already mamanged to become 
surprisingly numerous many places in the highlands. A fitting emblem of the old 
and new era in the Galapagos was the sight of a Cattle egret riding on the back 
of a Giant tortoise!

                                                                        Wim 
Vader, Tromsø Museum
                                                                        9037 
Tromsø, Norway
                                                                        


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