B is for the Birds

of the Galapagos Islands, that is. What did you think I meant? Go to Wednesday ABC (the new site) and Mrs. Nesbitt's ABC Wednesday (the old site) to see how others have interpreted the letter "B".

In June of 1999 Otto and I went to the Galapagos Islands. I was still using a non-digital camera without even a zoom lens. You would think that I would be ill-equipped to film wildlife. But animals on the Galapagos Islands are different. Through the ages they have seldom if ever encountered human predators. The swallow-tailed gull and her chick in the photo above are perfectly willing to share a log on the beach with a human companion.


In the above photo, a male frigate bird inflates his display pouch while his mate hunkers down on their nest.

He will take his turn at incubating the single egg. Here the pair exchange places.

Frigate birds nest in low brush, but their true domain is the sky where they harass any passing fish-carrying bird in an attempt to steal food when the other bird drops it.


Fish-eating flightless cormorants have forgone usable wings in favor of faster underwater speed. In this rookery of flightless cormorants, the males not only share incubation duties, they bring back baubles to embellish the nest. Note the nest to the far left decorated with a starfish. Shells are favorite decor, as are bottle caps, especially brightly colored ones.


Boobies come in three varieties in the Galapagos. The above is a masked booby. The shadow illustrates just how unafraid he is of humans.

The rookeries of blue-footed boobies cling to cliffs above the sea. I took this photo from a Zodiac landing craft on the water.

Red-footed booby.

It's a magical moment when a flight of blue-footed boobies sails up into the mist.