Sorry that I haven’t posted for a few days, I arrived back on Friday 29th, and have just about recovered from the 46 hour journey to get home.
I still have a lot to show you about finches, and plants, tortoises and fish (amongst other things).
I will start with a few finches. They are extremely difficult to identify, and I am not surprised that Darwin overlooked them in favour of the louder and generally ‘more shouty’ mocking birds.
These four birds (all males) are almost identical (the large ground finch is still immature, so his plumage is not completely black) except for their beaks. I am not an (expert) ornithologist, and looking at these birds it took me absolutely ages to be able to tell the difference between the 4 species above, but I think that I have it:
Geospiza magnirostris has the largest beak which runs straight into the head, so there is no ‘forehead’.
Geospiza fortis has a ‘large’ beak, but there is a forehead.
Geospiza fuliginosa has a small beak and a resulting ‘high’ forehead.
Geospiza scandens has a similar beak to forehead ratio as G. fortis, but the beak is much longer and sharper looking. Here is a female cactus ground finch that shows the beak really well:
The easiest finch to identify is the warbler finch, Certhidea sp.
It is the smallest finch, and has the closest thing that any of these lovely little birds have to a song.
The last finch that I think I have identified is the vegetarian finch, Platyspiza crassirostris. It is about 16cm, and has a large beak, but you will have to wait until next year for a photo, it was very skittish.