Illustration: HBW
VAMPIRE GROUND-FINCH
Pictured above is a Vampire Blood-finch (Geospiza Septentrionalis). It is the only one of 10,989 species in the HBW and Birdlife International checklist with 'Vampire' in its name. It is found on just two of the Galapagos Islands off the west coast of South America. It has the rather ghoulish feeding habit of pecking for insects on the feather roots skin of larger birds, such as boobies, until a wound opens and it can drink its victims' blood. It is thought that its taste for blood is to compensate for resources on the arid Galapagos Islands of Wolf and Darwin. They are few in number and classified as Critically Endangered.
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BarrytheBirder
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