Darwin's finches (also known as the Galápagos finches) are a group of about 15 species of passerine birds. They often are classified as the subfamily Geospizinae or tribe Geospizini. It is still not clear which bird family they belong to, but they are not related to the true finches. They were first collected by Charles Darwin on the Galápagos Islands during the second voyage of the Beagle. All are found only on the Galápagos Islands, except the Cocos Island Finch from Cocos Island.
The term Darwin's Finches was first applied by Percy Lowe in 1936, and popularised in 1947 by David Lack in his book Darwin's Finches. The birds vary in size from 10 to 20 cm and weigh between 8 and 38 grams. The smallest are the warbler-finches and the largest is the Vegetarian Finch. The most important differences between species are in the size and shape of their beaks, and the beaks are highly adapted to different food sources. The birds are all dull-coloured.
Read more about Darwin's Finches: Darwin's Theory, Polymorphism in Darwin's Finches, Molecular Basis of Beak Evolution
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“It was at a particular moment in the history of my own rages that I saw the Western world conditioned by the images of Marx, Darwin and Freud; and Marx, Darwin and Freud are the three most crashing bores of the Western world. The simplistic popularization of their ideas has thrust our world into a mental straitjacket from which we can only escape by the most anarchic violence.”
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