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Sharp-beaked Ground Finch | Geospiza difficilis
Spitssnavelgrondvink | Pinzón terrestre piquiagudo | Tentilhão-terrestre-de-bico-agudo
The Sharp-beaked Ground Finch is a small Darwin's finch of the highest, humid parts of a few Galápagos islands. It has the most pointed bill of the ground finches and feeds mainly on the ground among moss, ferns and leaf litter. The populations of Genovesa and of Wolf and Darwin are now treated as separate species: Genovesa Ground Finch and Vampire Ground Finch.
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Voice
The song is a short, buzzy or chirping phrase, repeated at intervals. The call is a short, high chip.
No recording with a suitable Creative Commons licence is available for this species yet.
Identification
11–12 cm, with a fairly long, pointed, conical bill that is narrower than in the other ground finches. Adult males are mostly black, with whitish edges to the undertail coverts. Females and young birds are olive-brown above with rufous edges to the wing coverts, and pale brown with dark streaks below. Bill colour changes with the season from dark to paler yellowish.
Confusion species
Small Ground Finch Geospiza fuliginosa has a shorter, blunter bill and lives mainly in the lower, drier zones. Medium Ground Finch Geospiza fortis is larger, with a clearly deeper bill. Green Warbler-Finch Certhidea olivacea is smaller and olive-green, with a thin, warbler-like bill. Genovesa Ground Finch Geospiza acutirostris and Vampire Ground Finch Geospiza septentrionalis are very similar but do not occur on the same islands.
Habitat
Mainly the humid highland zone with moss, ferns and scrub, and the open, grassy areas on the highest parts of the islands; outside the breeding season also lower, down into the arid zone. It takes seeds, insects and other small invertebrates on and just above the ground, turning over leaves and litter. It breeds in the rainy season; the nest is a domed structure with a side entrance, in a shrub or tree.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Endemic to the Galápagos. It occurs on Fernandina and Pinta, and in small numbers on Santiago. It has disappeared from Santa Cruz. Absent from mainland Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.
- Resident
How and when to look
The islands within its range can only be visited in a limited way; the best chance is in the uplands of Santiago or Fernandina, which are accessible only with a licensed guide. Look for a small ground finch with a noticeably pointed bill rummaging in the litter.
Conservation status
Least Concern, but the range is small and fragmented. Introduced mammals, loss of highland vegetation and the introduced parasitic fly Philornis downsi are threats; the Santa Cruz population has already gone.
Scientific name
Geospiza difficilis | Sharpe, 1888
Sharpe described the species in 1888 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Geospiza was introduced in 1837 by Gould. The genus name comes from Greek gē, 'earth, ground', and spiza, 'finch': a ground finch. The species name comes from Latin difficilis, 'difficult, troublesome'. Such names were given to species whose systematic position was hard to determine; Sharpe described the species in 1888. The specimen the first description was based on came from Pinta Island, Galápagos.