User:Robstercake/Vampire ground finch

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A member of Darwin's finches that is commonly known for its unique blood-sucking parasitic behavior of other birds.

Ecology

Typically they don't fight back because the interaction for the boobies is relatively harmless and not worth abandoning their nest over. Another reason for not fighting back is that the finches sometimes swarm in multiples which makes it impractical for the single booby to defend itself.

Conservation

A dead Darwin finch that was a host of the Avian vampire fly (Philornis downsi). Notice that the nares of the chick's beak have been widened. This is due to the larvae moving around and sucking the blood and tissues of the baby finch.

Conservation efforts that affect the vampire ground finch typically fall under ecosystem wide protection efforts of all of Darwin's finches on the Galapagos, since all of these finches live in similar habitats and face similar problems often introduced by humans such as invasive parasites, newly introduced predators like cats, climate pressures, and habitat disturbances.

Its approximated that fewer than a 1,000 individuals of the Vampire ground finch are endemic to the Wolf and Darwin islands of the Galapagos. This isolated population makes is vulnerable to potential threats such as the invasive Avian vampire fly (Philornis downsi) and viruses like the Avian pox.

Originally spotted in the Galapagos in 1964, the Avian vampire fly (Philornis downsi) targets nests of Darwin's finches with their parasitic larvae. The Avian vampire fly plants their larvae inside of the chicks nares so that they could feed on the blood and tissues of the chicks, often leading to the nestlings' deaths. So far there have only been recorded instances of this happening to Darwin finches on the Santa Cruz island of the Galapagos which is not inhibited by the Vampire ground finch.