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Medium ground finch

Geospiza fortis

EndemicOn landLeast concern

The medium ground finch is one of Darwin’s finches and the bird in which biologists first documented natural selection on beak size. It has a variable, stout bill suited to cracking seeds of different sizes. It occurs on ten Galápagos islands in arid and transition zones. Long-term study on Daphne Major made it a textbook example of evolution in action.

Best time to see it

Resident year-round; breeding is triggered by rainfall in the warm wet season.