Today we visited Genovesa Island, also known as Tower. The Spanish name comes from Genoa, Italy, city where Christopher Columbus was born. The English name Tower refers to a British admiral, not the shape of the island. In fact, Genovesa is a very small and flat island. It is just 5.4 square miles and 249 feet maximum height. This morning after disembarking on a beautiful white coral beach we had a short walk on the visitor's site known as Darwin Bay. The area itself is very small, but holds an incredible number of birds. At this time of the year many birds are breeding: great frigatebirds, red-footed boobies and swallow-tailed gulls. The whole place really looks like a big nursery!
The little bird shown in the picture is a swallow-tailed gull chick. It is roughly two weeks old. The chick was standing on top of a small cliff near the beach. Its parents were very close to it, as guardians protecting their precious offspring from rapacious frigatebirds. Swallow-tailed gull parents will take care of the young until it is about three months old. Fledglings can be seen swimming in groups near the nesting area. After this long period of total dependency, both parents and offspring leave for four to five months, then return to start another breeding season. The innocence of these chicks captivated our visitors today!
