Galapagos Islands Mockingbird, Ecuador Postcard

A Galápagos mockingbird eyes tourists in the highlands on the island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador. Spanish moss hangs from the tree branch. The Galápagos mockingbird is one of four mockingbird species endemic to the Galápagos Islands. These four are all closely related, and DNA evidence shows they likely all descended from an ancestor species which reached the islands in a single colonization event. John Gould first described the species in 1837, based on specimens brought back from the islands by Charles Darwin. The Galápagos mockingbird (Mimus parvulus) is a species of bird in the Mimidae family. The Galápagos Islands are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.