Birds Gotta Swim

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Birds Gotta Swim, Fish Gotta Fly

Truth in Advertising:  there are not pictures of flying fish in this segment.  Capturing flying fish on a digital camera is tough, well beyond my abilities.  We did, however see them on several occasions.  It turns out they’re pretty common.  And why they fly is still speculative- the two leading hypotheses are predator escape and energetic savings, hard as that may be to believe. 

But the real topic for today is flightless birds.  There are two species of flightless birds in Galápagos:  the Galapagos Penguin (Spheniscus mendiculus) and the Flightless Cormorant (Phalacrocorax harrisi).  Donna and I were fortunate enough to see both on our trip. 

A Penguin and a Sea Lion facing off.  From Santiago Island in 2010.

The Penguin is one of the most popular residents of the Galapagos- it is, after all, pretty startling to see penguins on the equator.  The Galapagos Penguin is in fact the only one that lives north of the equator (though we only saw them when south of the equator).  There are about 5000 of them, which is a pretty small number, spread out through the central and western islands. 

They're even in church windows

The most probable place for people to see them is around Bartolome, off Santiago Island- there is a resident colony there, and I’ve seen them there pretty much every time I’ve had the chance.  But they can also be seen near Floreana (I know because of this photo from 2010), around much of Santiago, and Isabela. 

Penguin off Floreana.  Also from 2010.

And when you go around Isabela, to the West, toward Fernandina- that’s when the flightless bird part takes off (sorry)! 

The western side of Isabela is the “cold” side, in terms of the water- the Cromwell current pushes in from the West, and brings in cold, cold water.  This water may be less-than-fun to swim in for normal people, but it brings nutrients that form the base of a pretty spectacular food web, and results in these waters being a wonderful place to see marine life. 

This trip was the first time I’d had the chance to see this part of the Galapagos- for the first week and a bit, we were going to places I’d been before, or at least very similar.  This area was what I had been waiting for (see earlier post on Fernandina). 

Our first stop after heading past Puerto Villamil (the town on Isabela), was Elizabeth Bay.  The National Park is pretty strict about what you can do where- some places you can hike, some you can snorkel, some you can only ride in the pangas and look.  Elizabeth bay was this latter type- but was such a great place  for seeing the birds (and also sea turtles), that it was totally worth it.  There were many, many seabirds there, including the two flightless stars.    The photo at the top of this entry gives you the idea.  Close examination of the shot will reveal at least 5 species of birds- blue-footed boobies, brown pelicans, frigatebirds (probably magnificent frigatebirds), penguins and cormorants.  After spending a lot of time looking at this small rock full of birds, we cruised around to see what other opportunities would present themselves. 

I didn’t notice until later that one of the first penguins we saw, on the rock, was bloody- I do not know why.

2 Penguins and a couple of Blue-footed Boobies

The penguins were good at finding any small bit of rock to rest on when they wanted a break from swimming

Not that they were slouches at swimming (more in a moment)

The surreality of the situation, equatorial penguins, was driven home by seeing them among the red mangroves that helped define the bay. 

Here's a little video of a penguin swimming, off Santiago:  

Enough about the penguins for now.  The other flightless bird, and the one I’d been really anticipating seeing, was the flightless cormorant, and to see them, you have to do west of isabela.  This is the only place these birds are found, in the world.  Recall, I mentioned them on Fernandina: 

Before we see them, a word about cormorants in general.

Below is a photo from Alaska this summer.  There are two species shown here- the Pelagic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pelagicus) and the Red-Faced Cormorant (Phalacrocorax urile). 

The thing that’s interesting about cormorants (okay, one thing) is that, although they are seabirds, their feathers are not completely waterproof.  A Booby, or a Pelican, for example, can spend all day diving into the water, then taking off from the surface and diving again and again (pics later).  But cormorants, and their somewhat close relative the anhinga (Anhinga anhinga), get waterlogged (the less waterproof feathers do in fact confer some advantage- they decrease buoyancy, allowing the bird to stay under water more easily). 

As a result, cormorants and anhingas, after spending time in the water, need to spend time sunning so that their wings dry enough for flight.  Here are a couple examples- the first is a cormorant from Alaska, and the second an anhinga, from Florida this past November. 

The anhinga at least is also probably warming up a bit.  Now, remember this part- they sun themselves to dry their wings so that they can fly.  Also look at the wings.- nice, hmm? 

Now, the Flightless cormorant of the Galapagos.  Note the first word- flightless.  These birds have lost the ability to fly- a reasonably common evolutionary change in birds when predators are absent, as on islands.  They make their living by swimming, both at the surface and diving under water (I couldn’t get a pic of this- they’re really fast). 

They’re very picturesque, and have long thin necks.  They also have a surprising deep moo-ing voice. 

But the last of the above picture begins to show the weird, wild thing.  Check the cormorant’s pose.  Look familiar?

That’s right, this cormorant is holding out its wings to dry them.  First, check out the wings- not as impressive as his/her Alaskan relatives are they?  This is typical in flightless birds- the old “use it or lose it” concept.  If maintaining wings, with their attendant muscles, bone, nerves, etc, costs energy (and it does), and they’re not being used, the individuals who have cheaper (less developed) wings have an advantage in energy savings.  And if the under-development is genetic, they can pass this trait on to their offspring, who also have the advantage.  Over generations, the wings of the flightless population atrophy to the point seen in the pictures below. 

But the birds still go through the motions of drying their wings, despite the fact that they’re never going to fly!  (I admit, they probably also do warm up a little, but these atrophied wings are also a lot less effective as solar panels than the ones in the Alaska cormorants and the anhinga). 

I love that- a near-vestigial organ (the wings), and what appears to be a vestigial behavior as well.  

The end?