Darwin Finches | Go Galapagos
Landbirds

Darwin Finches

Darwin Finches Gallery

More about  Darwin Finches

Darwin finches are a group of about 14 birds that gained notoriety when Charles Darwin studied them back in his voyage with the HMS Beagle in 1835. Darwin arrived in the Galapagos and was fascinated by collecting species he found in his trip — the species were taken back to the UK for further studies.

Back home, Darwin studied the birds with ornithologist John Gould and found fascinating similarities between these birds and a common South American ancestor finch. They noticed that finches had slight differences in the beaks and were also as a whole different from the original continental ancestor. Each finch had adapted to their own island environment and food source availability with variations in their claws, size, and beaks — deriving from this they were acknowledged as endemic to the Galapagos Islands.

Some finches have adapted to eat insects, others to eat nuts, others are completely vegetarian. Charles Darwin, years later, gathered all his findings in his famous book On the Origin of Species and concluded that species have the ability to change throughout time making favorable adaptations to their environment and becoming new species. This is what we commonly know as the theory of evolution by means of natural selection.

Places where you may see this animal:

Darwin Finches
  • Animal Group: Landbirds
  • Scientific Name: Geospizinae
  • Animal Average Size: 10 - 20 cm
  • Animal Average Weight: 8 - 38 g

Galapagos Animals

Yellow Warbler

View more

Sea Lion

View more

Galapagos Brown Pelican

View more

Galapagos Flightless Cormorant

View more

Marine Iguana

View more

Great Blue Heron

View more

Whales

View more

Land Iguana

View more

Red-Footed Booby

View more

Fur Seal

View more

Galapagos Hawk

View more

Galapagos Flamingo

View more

Brown Noddy Tern

View more

Nazca Booby

View more

Giant Tortoise - Lonesome George

View more

Galapagos Penguin

View more

Stingrays

View more

Blue-Footed Booby

View more

Dolphins

View more

Galapagos Barn Owl

View more

Red-Billed Tropicbird

View more

Swallow-Tailed Gull

View more

American Oystercatcher

View more

Mockingbird

View more

Frigatebird

View more

Galapagos Green Sea Turtle

View more

Lava Heron

View more

Waved Albatross

View more

Whitetip Reef Shark

View more
Open chat
Hello 👋
Can we help you?