Galápagos Mockingbirds

Home
The genus Nesomimus
The archipelago and its mockingbirds
Galápagos Mockingbird
Floreana Mockingbird
> Española Mockingbird
San Cristóbal Mockingbird
Darwin and mockingbirds
Mainland relatives
Nesomimus bibliography
About this site
 

http://oikos.villanova.edu/nesomimus/

Created by Robert L. Curry
Last modified: Wed, Nov 15, 2006
  Española Mockingbird, Isla Española  

Española
Mockingbird

Nesomimus
macdonaldi

 
  • Largest of all of the mockingbirds in Galápagos
  • Lives only on Española and Gardner-by-Española, a small adjacent islet
  • Maintains territories in all habitats on the islands where it occurs
  • Extraordinarily fearless of humans; frequently lands on tourists visiting Punta Suarez site at western tip of Española
  • More opportunistic feeding habits than any of the other mockingbirds; known to eat insects, fruit, bird eggs, nestling songbirds, blood, sealion placentas, lizards
  • Maintains social groups of up to at least 25 individuals, within which up to 4 pairs breed at separate nests (with occasional joint-nesting)
  • Cooperative breeder: non-breeders act as helpers at nests in their group's territory, and some breeders help raise nestlings in nests other than their own


Española Mockingbirds feeding on sealion placenta

Back to top