Genovesa Island (Tower): A small island (10.5 km²) in the shape of a horseshoe – the interior bay is an old imploded volcano. A wet landing on Darwin Bay beach starts your tour with colonies of Frigates, Red Footed and Masked Boobies. Just behind the beach one sees inland tide pools and outcrops of black rock and saltbushes, frequented by feeding Wandering Tattlers, Turnstones, Whimbrels, Lava Gulls and Fiddler Crabs. This is also home to four of the 14 species of the finch found in the Islands; the Large Ground Finch, the Sharp-beaked Ground Finch, the Large Cactus Finch and the Warbler Finch. Genovesa is also home to the indigenous Galapagos Mockingbird and to the Galapagos Dove.
If you’re lucky, you might even see a Short Eared Owl. Genovesa is home to what is probably the largest collection of red-footed boobies (up to 140,000 pairs), who nest in the gray polo Santo trees dotting the cliffs. The southeastern cliffs are alive with one of island’s largest colonies of wedge romped petrels (up to 200,000 pairs), tiny, nocturnal birds that share the small point of land with their daylight-loving relatives, the delicate band-trumped petrels.
Genovesa is a great stop on any Galapagos Islands tour.
