There are several sites to spot flamingos during your Galapagos holidays, and if you are lucky enough to travel to one of them while they are feeding (or displaying, which can truly make someone’s day during a Galapagos cruise), you will most likely find the experience a true delight.
Flamingos can scarcely be considered the reason why people travel to the Galapagos. There are many other places where you can find flamingos, including Florida. But at any of these travel destinations, the encounter is always fascinating. Their large size, gaudy coloration, their bizarre forms (strange bill, lanky stature), even their peculiar habits of sticking their heads in mud, standing on one leg, and of course, their spectacular courtship parades… flamingos are truly unique creatures.
Galapagos Flamingos
They are also unique in terms of Galapagos wildlife in that they are not as tame as most of the animals you usually come across during Galapagos cruise excursions. They keep their distance and you will probably want binoculars to catch their every move.
Like with most other Galapagos creatures, the actual reason as to why the Islands are home to this species is still not fully understood… one of the main mysteries being that flamingos found in mainland Ecuador come from Chile and those found in the Galapagos come all the way from the Caribbean!
In general, the addition of flamingos as members of the Galapagos community surely equates the overall group of animals found there to a cock-eyed mix of castaways picked at random… you might say: just like that TV program Lost… it just sort of goes to show that in the end, animals adapt to environments and not the other way around. In other places on earth, things are so elaborate that you easily come to the conclusion that most living creatures are somehow embedded in the landscape. Flamingos in Galapagos give you the impression of something different. As if they were somehow photoshopped in!
During Galapagos holiday cruise itineraries, you may see flamingos at Punta Comorán in Floreana Islands, in an inlet that lies right next to the beach on Rábida Island, in the “Humedales” of Puerto Villamil, on Isabela Island, Punta Moreno, on Isabela Island or Cerro Dragón on Santa Cruz, among other specific cruise itinerary sites where brackish water lagoons have been formed.
