“Vampires” and Boobies | National Geographic

you’ve probably never used the words
sharp beaked ground Finch and vampire in
the same sentence but here in the
Galapagos Islands brace yourself for
some blood sucking Birds nor at least
blood pecking for most of the year on
wolf island the climate here is fiercely
hot and dry finches would love to eat
their favorite foods seeds but the
drought conditions just don’t produce
enough so what happens as you can see
here is that sharp beaked ground finches
like these pounce on the tail of a
seabird usually a booby like this one
and peck at the base of its wing
feathers one Finch breaks the skin and
then a small crowd forms and the finches
lap up the blood it’s not like the booby
doesn’t realize something’s wrong it
tries to shoo the finches away but a
gruesome kind of artistry comes into
play here now watch this Finch figure
out exactly how much damage it can do to
the booby without getting tossed off the
key is to cause just enough damage to
keep the blood flowing without creating
so much pain the booby gets fed up and
gives the finches the permanent heave-ho
this Finch dances on that fine line like
it’s a high wire and a circus if there’s
any good news from wolf island it’s this
the finches don’t appear to do any
long-term harm to the boobies
but man cha annoying them big time