Top 5 bird rankings
Galapagos Islands

 

Galapagos
bird rankings

See "About my bird list" section below for criteria.

Blue-footed boobies

These Galapagos residents are world famous for their bright blue web feet (see photo above). During the courtship dance, the male blue-footed booby comically raises his feet up and down, alternating between the two. He's showing off how blue his feet are (the deeper the blue, the greater the woo). Blue-footed boobies catch fish by plunge-diving into shallow shore water. This spectacular feat captivates visitors.

Most Galapagos islands, but best bets are Espanola, Fernandina, Isabela, and North Seymour.

Galapagos penguins

This is one of the world's shortest of penguin species and it is the only one found north of the equator. Galapagos penguins nest in niches in rocky coastal lava cliffs - and spend their out-of-the-water time living on those protective formations. Sometimes these flightless aquatic birds intermingle with snorkelers.

Bartolome (at Pinnacle Rock), Fernandina and Isabel.

Frigatebirds

Males inflate their bright-red throat pouch (see photo above) to attract and seduce females. The bird was aptly named after the frigate ship, a fast vessel used by pirates. Reason: The frigatebird hijacks the food of other birds in mid air. It has enviable aerial maneuverability despite its broad wingspan. There are two main species: Magnificent and Greater.

Genovesa, North Seymour, and San Cristobal.

Flightless cormorants

Through a slow evolutionary process, the wings of these birds gradually shrank. This occurred so that the body would become more streamlined and therefore swim faster underwater in quest of its chief food: bottom-fishes, octopuses and eels. The wings atrophied so much that the bird could no longer fly. That poses no concern because there are no land-based natural predators around to fly away from. After fishing, the flightless cormorant stretches out its stunted wings to dry them (see photo).

Fernandina and Isabela.

Waved albatross

These sizable birds can live up to 50 years They have one of the world's largest wing spans (up to 2.5 meters or 8 feet). To see the waved albatrosses in the Galapagos, come between April and December (they are gone from January to March.)  Waved albatrosses can cruise-glide the South Pacific thermals searching for surface fish for over a year without ever landing on water or land.

Espanola (almost all the world's waved albatrosses breed and nest on this island).

Galapagos bird
runners-up

Each is fascinating. Listing is alphabetical.

Brown pelican
Darwin's finches
Greater flamingo
Nazca booty
Red-billed tropicbird
Red-footed booby
Oystercracker
Stilts
Swallow-tailed gull
Vemillion flycatcher

Honorable
Mentions

Bird lovers relish seeing dozens of other interesting birds in the Galapagos in addition to the ones listed above. They include Galapagos doves, Galapagos hawks, Galapagos mockingbirds, lava gulls, brown noddies, short-eared owls, great blue herons, storm petrals, white-cheeked pintail doves, and yellow warblers.

About my top
Galapagos bird list

Ranking criterion: Impartial consensus of sophisticated travelers.

Category criterion: This top 5 list embraces birds, whether they can fly or not. See my land-and-shore page for creatures like marine iguanas and my marine life page for those like dolphins.

Top 5 land & shore wildlife rankings
Top 5 marine life rankings

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