“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 picky for most of the year on wolf
island the climate here is fiercely hot
and dry finches would love to eat their
favorite food 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
pounced 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 Fitch 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 movies but Manta annoying
them
big time