Isabela and Fernandina
Today we arrived very early in the morning to the western side of the “Enchanted Islands” which is one of our favorite places in this archipelago because of the richness of the waters and the marvelous landscape.
But here you find a sea bird that cannot fly, when all others species in its family do fly. It is quite heavy (nine pounds) and has a vestigial "keel" projecting from the breastbone. This normally anchors the flight muscles on all flying birds, but this one is completely flightless. One of its nicest features is the eye color, a turquoise blue, and one of its greatest achievements is to dive down to more than 100 feet when foraging for food. There are many species in other regions but this is the only representative of its family that has exchanged its pilot’s license for the scuba diving license.
Any guess as to what brid I'm talking about? It is the Galápagos Flightless Cormorant. A unique seabird of this archipelago and found only in the western realm. We saw them in the morning during the Zodiac ride along the coast of Isabela Island, and then in the afternoon we saw them again nesting at Punta Espinoza on the island of Fernandina.
We were all amazed by this unique and rare seabird, but we also enjoyed everything else, such as sea lions, sally light-foot crabs, sea turtles here and there, penguins…and a lot of marine iguanas sun bathing on the lava flows of this young and magic island
Today we arrived very early in the morning to the western side of the “Enchanted Islands” which is one of our favorite places in this archipelago because of the richness of the waters and the marvelous landscape.
But here you find a sea bird that cannot fly, when all others species in its family do fly. It is quite heavy (nine pounds) and has a vestigial "keel" projecting from the breastbone. This normally anchors the flight muscles on all flying birds, but this one is completely flightless. One of its nicest features is the eye color, a turquoise blue, and one of its greatest achievements is to dive down to more than 100 feet when foraging for food. There are many species in other regions but this is the only representative of its family that has exchanged its pilot’s license for the scuba diving license.
Any guess as to what brid I'm talking about? It is the Galápagos Flightless Cormorant. A unique seabird of this archipelago and found only in the western realm. We saw them in the morning during the Zodiac ride along the coast of Isabela Island, and then in the afternoon we saw them again nesting at Punta Espinoza on the island of Fernandina.
We were all amazed by this unique and rare seabird, but we also enjoyed everything else, such as sea lions, sally light-foot crabs, sea turtles here and there, penguins…and a lot of marine iguanas sun bathing on the lava flows of this young and magic island
