📸 PhotoPhoto: Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Medium Ground Finch
Geospiza fortis (Medium Ground Finch · ガラパゴスフィンチ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its weight of about 26 g is slightly heavier than a single AA battery (about 23 g) (Comparison).
- 💡 At El Garrapatero on Santa Cruz Island, researchers attached tiny radio tags to track the movements of this bird.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
Site-computed relative index from recorded values; not a formal scientific metric.
📖 1. Overview
The Medium Ground Finch is a small seed-eating finch living in the Galápagos Islands. It inhabits dry forests and coastal forests on islands such as Santa Cruz Island.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Five tagged individuals had body weights of 19.7–26.1 g, tarsus (leg bone) lengths of 20.7–22.3 mm, and wing lengths of 68–79 mm.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
All nests used in the study were located in cacti, and its home range consisted mostly of dry forest (about 55%) and coastal "manzanillo forest" (about 36%). Seed-eating finches may also disperse seeds of plants used as nesting material.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2024) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22723734/263305169
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • doi.org — avilist.v2026
- • iucnredlist.org — 263305169
- • wikidata.org — Q762307
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Female Galápagos medium ground finch.jpg
- • pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — PMC9039628
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Ryan Cupo · CC0 1.0 (Congeneric silhouette — Geospiza)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.