Charles Darwin

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The Vegetarian and the Woodpecker (“Darwin’s” Finches)

And where is the place of understanding?

It is hid from the eyes of all living;

And concealed from the birds of the air.

–Job 28:20-21

The Galápagos is famous for its very drab but diverse (in beak size) finches. They are rather mistakenly called Darwin’s Finches.

Large ground-finch on Genovesa.

In 1835, Darwin famously only spent five weeks in the Galápagos visiting only four of the islands (I visited nine).

“Darwin’s finches” was never a phrase coined by Darwin himself but his writings in the Voyage of the Beagle and Origin of Species really put the Galápagos and it’s finches on the scientific map.

Throughout the islands you will see many statues or paintings of Charles Darwin in many ages of his life. He was in his mid twenties when he visited the Galápagos.

I did a continuous line sketch of one of the statues in San Cristobal with a finch on his shoulder. (The finch was not real but part of the statue.) The statue stands with hand extended as if he is offering to shake your hand. Behind him is a model of the Beagle, looking more like a play structure you might find in a fast food restaurant.

The silly statue of Darwin on San Cristobal with one of his famous finches on his shoulder.
An example of Darwin as an older man at the Charles Darwin Research Station.

In the excellent Pulitzer Prizewinning book The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner, the author tells the story of Peter and Rosemary Grant and the long term study of the finches of a small Galápagos island. Through their multi-decade research (measuring finch beak size) they are able to witness evolution in action.

I was most excited to see this small island that can’t be visited by the general public: Daphne Major. This is where the Grants did their groundbreaking research that changed our understanding of evolution.

For my spread of the finches, I sketched two of my favorites: the vegetarian and the tool using woodpecker finch. Both sketches are based on my photos.

Galápagos Top Predator

When you think of apex predators some iconic animals come to mind: Tyrannosaurus rex, African lion, orca, great white shark, polar bear, jaguar, saltwater crocodile, and harpy eagle.

The apex terrestrial predator of the Galápagos is not a mammal or a reptile but a raptor.

This is one of the larger buteo (broad winged) hawks in the world: the aptly named endemic Galápagos hawk.

The hawk is found on most of the major islands and preys on a wide variety of the island’s fauna, from giant centipedes to booby nestlings to marine iguanas.

On our journey around nine of the islands we saw hawks on three: Fernandina, Espanola, and Santa Fe.

In 1835, Darwin notes how tame the local hawks were as he writes in the Voyage of the Beagle:

“Extreme tameness…is common to all the terrestrial species…A gun is here superfluous; for with the muzzle I pushed a hawk off the branch of a tree.”

We did not get near close enough to knock a hawk out of a tree but we did have some good looks at the Enchanted Island’s top predator.

Our first look was at Punta Espinoza at the northwest tip of Fernandina Island. Our non-birder heart surgeon first spotted a juvenile on a cliff from the panga.

We later encountered the Galápagos’ top predator while looking at waved albatross on Espanola.

On Espanola, we saw an adult soaring on the same updrafts as the albatross.