20/07/2026
🌊 TALES FROM GALAPAGOS: THE FLIGHTLESS CORMORANT ✨ By Amy Croft ✨
If there is one bird in Galápagos that stands out as both fascinating and slightly terrifying, it’s the flightless cormorant.
With piercing icy-blue eyes and ragged, half-formed wings stretched to dry on black lava rocks, this bird looks prehistoric. You might initially feel sorry for a bird that can’t soar over the islands - but what it lacks in flight, it more than makes up for, beneath the ocean’s surface.
This bird is an extraordinary diver.
One moment it sits motionless on the rocks - the next it plunges into the water with startling speed, emerging with prey clamped in its hooked beak.
But beware… these birds have an attitude.
I was snorkeling in Punta Vicente Roca, floating above sea turtles resting peacefully on the sandy bottom of a shallow bay. Before entering the water, we had been warned not to get too close to the cormorants, as it was breeding season. I had heard stories of these birds charging visitors, so I kept a cautious eye and some distance.
Suddenly, a splash.
Just feet away, a cormorant torpedoed into the water after its prey. I froze in awe, getting a front-row seat to its underwater precision. Then, remembering the warnings, I slowly started swimming backward.
Feeling reasonably safe again, I felt a tug on my fin.
Confused, I looked down to see the bird furiously clapping at my fin with its long beak, repeatedly charging at my fins. I swam harder, trying to escape the offended little creature as it darted toward me again with surprising determination.
When I reached the other snorkelers, we instinctively formed a defensive circle, backs together, nervously watching the birds surrounding us.
Then came the shrieks from our guide.
One of the cormorants had launched itself at her, charging like a tiny, feathered bull! She gently tried to push it away as it continued its furious assault while we watched in stunned disbelief.
Finally, the bird lost interest, slipping back to its lava-rock throne to proudly survey its kingdom. And there we floated, laughing, slightly terrified, and completely humbled by the wonderfully wild unpredictability of Galápagos ✨
📷 credits: Amy Croft, Samuel Weitzman & Nick Saxon 💙
