The Galapagos islands are home to an amazing variety of birds that hop, soar, and perch amidst the mix of wildlife. My last two posts of travels in the Galapagos highlighted land and sea animals in their natural habitat on an eight-day cruise on a small ship in 2006. Hiking over volcanic black lava or skirting white beach sand, it was imperative to stay on marked trails; nesting grounds of various birds were scattered everywhere. Guides carefully directed their groups along acceptable paths, so as not to disturb protected areas.
Flightless cormorant couples take turns sitting on their eggs, carefully shifting their bodies into place.
The waved albatross rolls a single egg from place to place to keep its contents from settling. A clacking noise led us to two waved albatross in a dramatic mating dance, with bright yellow beaks clattering.
The dinosaur-like silhouettes of frigate birds soared above. Our guide climbed up rocks to capture a photo of a hawk. And many more…
Black and white Nazca boobies stretched their graceful wings.
My favorites, the spacey looking blue-footed boobies dotted sculptured cliffs. Diving boobies dropped into the waves from high in the air, and bobbed up gobbling a fish.
Having just moved out of my apartment in Guatemala the day before I left for this trip, with three years worth of accumulated stuff to organize and pack, I didn’t apply my usual diligence in preparing my travel gear. I discovered on ship that I had brought the wrong battery charger, and had no way to charge my camera battery. I turned off the digital viewer and tried to be more selective in choosing what images to capture, however the battery failed after the third day out. I had checked with everyone on board to try to find a usable battery charger, when our intrepid, problem-solving guide found that his camera would accept my memory cards, and let me use it for the remainder of the trip. What a relief! I sent him a cd of photos upon my return.
An outing the last morning in the dinghy, as the sky lightened, brought us to an open area between canals of mangroves. Above us, hundreds of boobies circled. Suddenly spotting a school of fish in the waters, the birds dived straight down, dropping and splashing, falling like rain, and then bobbed up to circle again in their morning ritual. These photos were shared from another traveler, since I had already returned the loaned camera.
After so many days at sea, my equilibrium had finally adjusted to the rhythmic movement of the constant ocean sway. Once on land, I continued the feeling of swaying as I traveled back to Guatemala through Quito, for my last few days of arrangements and difficult goodbyes in the Land of Eternal Spring.
Galapagos Islands: Galapagos adventure, Galapagos sea life, Birds of Galapagos
Ruth Rosenfeld 
The variety and volume of plant and animal life on the Galapagos Islands are quite amazing, especially as many of them are unique and found nowhere else in the world. I love your photo of the adorable Booby baby and would love to see these unique birds. Thanks for sharing, and have a good day 🙂 Aiva xx
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The boobies are cute, and the babies so fuzzy!
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🥰🥰🥰
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A wonderful post, so evocative of those islands and taking me straight back there! From your Waved Albatross photos I’m guessing that like us you went to Espanola, as I think that’s the only island where they breed. And I think your ‘speckled bird’ is a Yellow Night Heron, as I have a similar photo. I’m a bit jealous you saw so many penguins – they’re favourites of mine but we only saw two and not in a good position to photograph.
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Thanks for identifying that speckled bird. It’s a bit random getting photos of these creatures, luck plays a part. We went to a different island every day but I didn’t record what we saw where.
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Thanks for sharing this fascinating post!
The photos are, as always, stunning 💗
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Thank you as always, Luisa!
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You’re more than welcome, dear Ruth 💗
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You are the most amazing photos. Thanks so much for sharing.
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Thank you for visiting and your comment.
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You had such an amazing trip Ruth. The only birds we didn’t see were albatross, but I see in Sarah’s comment that they are only on one island. And our only penguins went darting past us in the water when we were snorkeling, so not picture as they were like torpedoes. Maggie
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It’s hard to catch everything, especially in a photo. I credit our remarkable array of sightings to our excellent guide.
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Your trip was such a great adventure. Seeing all those diving birds was one of many wonderful experiences.
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It was a surprise! Once again, our guide didn’t tell us what we were about to see. Quite amazing!
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Such beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you! Please do include your name in your comments, if you will. Your posts come through as Someone.
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Wow, what an amazing collections! I’d love to see a blue-footed booby especially. Their feet are just so bright!
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Thanks, Diana! I did love the blue-footed boobies. So unusual, and a funny expression on their faces.
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Gorgeous! Birds are absolutely fascinating, and all the better that there are so many diverse ones on the Galapagos Islands. Especially cormorants, which I’ve also seen as south as Ushuaia in Argentina! Thanks for sharing more of your adventures with us 🙂
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It’s so helpful to have a guide through travels in Galapagos. They can spot things I couldn’t see on my own. I’ve never been a birder, but these are all so unusual and different. I didn’t know the cormorants were so widespread. Thanks, Rebecca!
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Great closeups! And those diving birds are amazing. I wish humans could act in a way that made all wildlife feel comfortable around them.
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Thank you, my friend! A good zoom lens is a must for Galapagos – you just can’t get that close. These islands are a wildlife preservation treasure.
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Aww lovely shots. We have game that we play at Christmas as a family called ‘Bird Bingo’ and the blue footed boobie is a highlight, great to see him in person 🙂
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How fun! I think the blue footed boobie would be a highlight anywhere. 😊
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Beautiful captures of some of the birds you saw in the Galapagos. Love the blue footed boobies. Thank goodness you found a workaround for not having a battery charger. That was very kind of that guy to let you use his camera.
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Thanks so much! Those boobies kind of capture the heart. I was fortunate that our guide was not only kind, but clever enough to find a solution outside the box.
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It’s astonishing how close you were able to be while photographing some of these birds. The flightless cormorants are as fascinating to me as the penguins.
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Ah, the wonders of a good zoom lens! I was never all that close. But it is amazing how the wildlife is not bothered by the stream of onlookers passing by and gawking.
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“Nazca booby” is a great name for a species of bird! Also, I wouldn’t have guessed any small bird would be “flightless”. The variety of species you saw on this short trip is impressive.
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The cormorant is about the size of a small goose, not so small. The wildlife is so plentiful and diverse in Galapagos. It’s a carefully protected habitat. Thanks for reading and your comment, Dave.
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Wonderful captures of beautiful birds! 😊
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Oh those hundreds of circling boobies must have been a soul-stirring sight!
Blue-footed boobies were my favourite too.
Like you we were lucky enough to see a great number and variety of birds there.
Too bad about your camera!
Alison
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The boobies fishing en masse were an amazing sight, and even more so because we didn’t know what to expect. So dramatic when they all dropped! Glad you had a similar experience in Galapagos. The camera episode was upsetting – how could I be in a place like this without being able to take photos?!
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I can only visit Galapagos in my dreams (so I’m thankful I get to ‘visit’ it more through social media and blogs). I enjoyed the photos of birds, and true enough the blue-footed booby is eye catching and so cute!
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Thank you, MrsW. I did love those blue-footed boobies, so photogenic!
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Again Ruth, what an absolutely breathtaking corner of the world. I was immediately struck by the eye of the Flightless Cormorant, like a piece of jewellery. The albatrosses are equally stunning and as for the boobies filling the sky, what a moment to witness and photograph. Reminds me a bit of the night I saw over a million bats fill the sky in Battambang, Cambodia, many moons ago.
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Wow, the sky must have been alive with all those bats, what a sight! I was so glad to have a good zoom lens to get close to those beautiful birds. Galapagos is truly unique. Thanks, Leighton, for your comments!
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