Galapagos - More Isabela Island (Day 4)

Galapagos Yellow Warbler

After a lovely day on the west side of Isabela Island, the next day took us around to the south side to the small community of Puerto Villamil. Here we would board an open bus for the drive up Sierra Negra, an active shield volcano. This drive up the volcano took us to highland habitat and a chance for some new birds. As it was with this all subsequent visits to the highlands, it rained. These highland volcanos create their own weather and drizzling rain seemed to be the norm. We stopped at a couple of spots along the way to the top, birding different habitats. At the top we reached the trailhead for the hike to the caldera. This wasn't on our agenda, and besides, the visibility was about 100 feet. But there was a good bird to be had here - the Galapagos Rail. This skulker is similar to Black Rail in North America, very difficult to see. But our guides did a great job of putting us in the right spot and coaxing one out into semi-open position. 

Mid-elevation Bird List 1

Mid-elevation Bird List 2

High elevation Bird List

In the highlands we were able to see and discuss one of the unique species in the Galapagos - Vermilion Flycatcher. Alvaro Jaramillo (our tour leader) is an expert evolutionary biologist and has been traveling to the Galapagos for many years. There are many recognized subspecies of Vermilion Flycatcher from North America down through South America. The Galapagos is no different, with two recognized subspecies as well. Through his observations and critical thinking, he was convinced that there was at least one, and perhaps both of the Vermilion Flycatcher subspecies on the Galapagos that should be considered full species. In the Galapagos, while males look somewhat similar to the mainland birds, the females are considerably different with primarily yellow plumage instead of orange, and the male's song is different. He recruited other experts and an investigation was conducted. One subspecies, from San Cristobal Island hasn't been seen since 1987 and may already be extinct. Using molecular biology (museum specimens for the San Cristobal birds), it was found that both recognized subspecies in the Galapagos were so different from mainland birds that the investigators proposed elevating them to full species. The South American Classification Committee agreed and split these two off from the rest giving them both full species status. The American Ornithological Society and eBird haven't followed along yet, so they are still subspecies on our list. They should eventually come around to the facts and elevate these species. 

If you want to read more on this subject:

SACC Proposal

California Academy of Science article

Puerto Villamil

Our carriage awaits

Lava fields in the lowlands as we start the climb up the mountain

Birding the mid-elevation highlands

Mid-elevation highlands

Trailhead at the end of the road

Galapagos Rail

Green Warbler-Finch

Green Warbler-Finch

Galapagos Vermilion Flycatcher

After returning from the mountain, we spent some time at a brackish lagoon viewing a few new species including some of the American Flamingos that hang around the Galapagos full time.

Lagoon Bird List

Lagoon

Boardwalk through the lagoons

Guardian of the boardwalk

American Flamingo

White-cheeked Pintail

The afternoon was reserved for some motoring the boat toward our next destination, and some sea birding along the way. Alvaro showed his amazing birding skills in the late afternoon when looking at a large feeding flock of birds at least a mile away through his binoculars, he noticed something odd about one particular bird. He convinced the captain to turn the boat and drive the wrong way toward the flock. When we got there, sure enough, there was a single juvenile Sooty Tern in the huge mixed flock. Sooty Tern is a super vagrant for the Galapagos, seen regularly much closer to Australia.

Juvenile Sooty Tern

Sunset from the boat