Galapagos Species Database
The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.
Geospiza difficilis
Pinzón Terrestre Piquiagudo, Pinzón de pico afilado, Sharp-beaked Ground Finch
Very similar to Vampire Ground-finch G. septentrionalis of Darwin and Wold, and Genovesa Ground-finch G. acutirostris. Similar to the Small Ground-finch with slightly longer and more pointed beak, with its upper edge almost straight.
Threats Affected by the parasitic fly Philornis downsi that causes heavy chick mortality, though data is missing.
Domain
Eukaryota
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Aves
Order
Passeriformes
Family
Thraupidae
Genus
Geospiza
Species
difficilis
Taxon category: Accepted
Syn.: Geospiza difficilis debilirostris Ridgway, 1894; Geospiza difficilis difficilis Sharpe, 1888; Geospiza difficilis septentrionalis Rothschild & Hartert, 1899; Geospiza nebulosa (Gould, 1837).
Origin: Endemic
Feeding preferences: Feeds mainly on insects and arthropods, also snails in the more humid zones.
Trophic role: Carnivorous
Reproduction mode: Exclusively sexual
Reproductive biology: Male displays in front of a dome shape nest. Only females incubate (three to five eggs), both feed the chicks.
Map of specimen collection localities or observation records for this species in our collections database.
Distribution: Present in the highlands of Santiago, Fernandina and Pinta, where the Small Ground Finch occupies the drier zones. In the present, in Darwin, Wolf is other species (G. septentrionalis), and in Genovesa (G. acutirostris). It is now extinct on Santa Cruz.
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- Schluter, D. Grant, P. (1982) The distribution of Geospiza difficilis in relation to G. fuliginosa in the Galápagos Islands: test of three hypothesis. Evolution 36:1213-1226.
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- Schluter, D. (1982) Distributions of Galápagos ground finches along an altitudinal gradient: the importance of food supply. Ecology 63:1504-1517
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- Farrington, H. Lawson, L., Clark, C. & Petren, K. (2014) The evolutionary history of Darwin's finches: speciation, gene flow, and introgression in a fragmented landscape. Evolution doi 10.1111/evo.12484.
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- Petren, K. Grant, P., Grant, B., Clack, A. & Lescano, N. (2010) Multilocus genotypes from Charles Darwin’s finches: biodiversity lost since the voyage of the Beagle. ) Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences 365:1009-1018.
- IUCN (2015) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2015-4. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 20 November 2015.
- Lamichhaney, S. Berglund, J., Sällman Almén, M., Maqbool, K., Grabherr, M., Martinez-Barrio, A., Promerova, M., Rubin, C.J., Wang, C., Zamani, N., Grant, B.R., Grant, P.R., Webster, M.T., Andersson, L. (2015) Evolution of Darwin’s finches and their beaks revealed by genome sequencing Nature 518: 371-386. doi:10.1038/nature14181
- Remsen, J.V. Areta, J.I.Jr., Cadena, C.D., Claramunt, S., Jaramillo, A., Pacheco, J.F., Pérez-Emán, J., Robbins, M.B., Stiles, F.G., Stotz, D.F., Zimmer, K. J. (2016) A Classification of the Bird Species of South America. South American Classification Committee. American Ornithologists' Union http://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm
- IUCN (2017) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Version 2016-3. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 03 February 2017.
- Freile, J.F. Santander, T., Jiménez-Uzcátegui, G., Carrasco, L., Cisneros-Heredia, D., Guevara, E., Sánchez-Nivicela, M., Tinoco, B. (2019) Lista Roja de las aves del Ecuador Quito, Ecuador. 97 pp.
You are welcome to download and use the information found in this page, acknowledging its source.
This page should be cited as follows:
"Galapagos Species Database, Geospiza difficilis", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist/?species=5093. Accessed 27 December 2024.
Feeding type: Insectivorous
Invertebrates