However, hidden among the islands’ ancient tortoises and aquatic iguanas, a more sinister animal roams with a taste for blood. As you’ll see in the above video, the vampire ground finch is one ...

On various islands, finch species have become adapted for different diets: seeds, insects, flowers, the blood of seabirds, and leaves. The ancestral finch was a ground-dwelling, seed-eating finch.

They drink the blood of larger birds, such as the Nazca and red-footed boobies, to supplement their diet when food is scarce ...

On-going projects include: Evaluating phylogenomic and population genomic structure Identifying genomic regions that differentiate populations and traits Characterizing rosy-finch blood parasites ...