Description: Conserving Darwins’ finches and other Galapagos land birds in the agricultural zone of Santa Cruz Island. We seek to understand the role that land birds are playing in the lives of the farms (such as providing pest control, acting as pests, or providing cultural value), as well as the role the agricultural zone and its management has on the land birds.

Project background: Building off her previous research, Ilke Geladi conducted her first field season in 2022 on Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos Archipelago, Ecuador. This project incorporates mist-netting, ecological surveys, crop exclosure experiments, meta-barcoding, and  data from farmer surveys.

Principle Collaborators: Dr. Birgit Fessl (Charles Darwin Foundation), Paulina Couenberg (Ministry of Agriculture Galapagos), Dr. Sabrina McNew (Cornell University), and Dr. Luis De Leon (University of Massachussets)

Project Partners: Charles Darwin Foundation, Ministry of Agriculture Galapagos

Funding Partners: NSERC CGSD, University of British Columbia (Werner & Hildegard Hesse), Charles Darwin Foundation, Ruffords Foundation