The Flickr Geospizamagnirostris Image Generatr

Isla Santa Cruz
Galapagos
Off The Coast Of Ecuador
South America

The Large Ground Finch (Geospiza magnirostris) is one of Darwin's finches, it is now placed in the family Thraupidae and was formerly in the Emberizidae. It is only found on the Galapagos Islands and is found in the arid zone of most of the archipelago, though it is absent from the southeastern islands (Floreana, Española, San Cristóbal and Santa Fé).

It is the largest species of Darwin's finches both in total size and size of beak. It has a large, short beak for cracking nuts to get food

Darwin's finches (also known as the Galápagos finches) are a group of about fifteen species of passerine birds. They often are classified as the subfamily Geospizinae or tribe Geospizini. It is still not clear which bird family they belong to, but they are not related to the true finches.

They were first collected by Charles Darwin on the Galápagos Islands during the second voyage of the Beagle. All are found only on the Galápagos Islands, except the Cocos Finch from Cocos Island. – Wikipedia

Großgrundfink (Geospiza magnirostris)
(c) Guido Bennen

Großgrundfink (Geospiza magnirostris)
(c) Guido Bennen

Santa Cruz Island
Galapagos
Ecuador
South America

The Large Ground Finch (Geospiza magnirostris) is one of Darwin's finches, it is now placed in the family Thraupidae and was formerly in the Emberizidae. It is only found on the Galapagos Islands, and is found in the arid zone of most of the archipelago, though it is absent from the southeastern islands (Floreana, Española, San Cristóbal and Santa Fé).

It is the largest species of Darwin's finch both in total size and size of beak. It has a large, short beak for cracking nuts to get food.

Darwin's finches (also known as the Galápagos finches) are a group of about fifteen species of passerine birds. They often are classified as the subfamily Geospizinae or tribe Geospizini.

It is still not clear which bird family they belong to, but they are not related to the true finches. They were first collected by Charles Darwin on the Galápagos Islands during the second voyage of the Beagle. All are found only on the Galápagos Islands, except the Cocos Finch from Cocos Island.

The term Darwin's Finches was first applied by Percy Lowe in 1936 and popularised in 1947 by David Lack in his book Darwin's Finches. The birds vary in size from 10 to 20 cm and weigh between 8 and 38 grams. The smallest are the warbler-finches and the largest is the Vegetarian Finch.

The most important differences between species are in the size and shape of their beaks, and the beaks are highly adapted to different food sources. The birds are all dull-coloured. – Wikipedia

An adult female Large Ground Finch from Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos. As with many of the finch species in Galapagos, females of this species have brown plumage dorsally marked with streaks and a light ventral side with a heavily marked upper chest, whereas males become uniformly black with age.

An adult female Large Ground Finch from Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos. Living up to its trademark niche, this female was busy putting away a seed that she had picked up off the ground. With the large crushing beak, these finches could make quick work of cracking the seeds and getting into the good parts.

An adult female Large Ground Finch from Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos. This female was polishing off a seed that it had picked up off the ground and took up into this tree to eat. This was a pretty common behavior, from what we could tell.

An adult male Large Ground Finch from Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos. This adult male was one of the few of this species we observed. He was hopping around a tortoise enclosure at the Charles Darwin Research Center.

An adult male Large Ground Finch from Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos. This is the larges species of finch in the Galapagos Archipelago in terms of body size. It also has the record for beak size.

An adult male Large Ground Finch from Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos. These birds seemed to be tied to the drier parts of the island, which makes sense given the size of the seeds we observed in these more arid conditions (seeds seemed to be much larger and harder than in other areas).

An adult female Large Ground Finch from Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos. This female was picking at the various fruits and seed hanging in the tree around it. I never saw it actually pull one off and consume it, however, some nearby birds seemed to be eating a similar, dried version from off the ground in the immediate vicinity of this bird.

Galapagos, Isabela

Galapagos, Isabela

Galapagos, Isabela

Galapagos, Isabela

Galapagos, Santa Cruz