Birds of the Amazon and Galapagos

Prior to this trip to Ecuador, I did not attempt to identify birds, beyond the cardinals, bluejays and robins living in the backyard. There were a few “birders” in our tour group who asked our guides to identify the birds we saw.  So, by association, I came to learn the birds we spotted in the Amazon and Galapagos.  

As the photos show, I am not a bird photographer. I carried a Tamron 70-300mm lens, which did not provide the reach needed when shooting from a three story platform to capture birds on the other side of a pond or high in the trees. But it was fun to try.

Birds of the Amazon

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Birds of the Galapagos

We explored the western Galapagos Islands. Our goal was to see a blue footed booby. We saw one within the 10 minutes of our first island walk. Goal accomplished, but there was so much more to see. In 1835 Charles Darwin discovered unique variations in species he encountered when he explored five of the Galapagos Islands, particularly tortoises and finches. This lead to his theory of evolution by natural selection the On the Origin of the Species.

In the Galapagos, we saw birds in the same family as ones we knew from home, but different species, often distinguished by placing “Galapagos” before the name, like the Galapagos hawk, Galapagos penguin, Galapagos martin and Galapagos mockingbird.

Blue footed boobies

Galapagos penguins

Galapagos mockingbirds

Galapagos hawk, Galapagos dove, Galapagos martin, Galapagos shearwater

Swallow tailed or nocturnal seagulls

Great frigate birds

Nazca boobies

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And in the Galapagos there was also an underwear world…