Paint-billed Crake

Paul Demkovich

We spent 8 days in the Galápagos Islands traveling to 10 islands, looking for the special birds on each. on our last day, we departed the boat and spent the night on Santa Cruz Island.

We traveled to several places on Santa Cruz including the Rancho Primicias, which is a sanctuary for many of the giant Galapagos tortoises. The tortoises were either on the grass or wallowing in small muddy ponds. At one of these ponds, a Paint-billed Crake was heard. After quietly waiting nearly 30 minutes, we could see leaves and grass rustling near the edge of the pond. The Crake ran across an open area in a flash, and we were all surprised!

But the bird reappeared a couple of minutes later and posed nicely for several minutes before disappearing again.