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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.

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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).

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