Buntings and New World Sparrows (Emberizidae)

Medium Ground-finch (Geospiza fortis) - HBW 16, p. 682

French: Géospize à bec moyen German: Mittelgrundfink Spanish: Pinzón de Darwin Picomediano

Taxonomy: Geospiza fortis Gould, 1837, Galapagos Islands.
Recent molecular-genetic research suggests that the Galapagos group consisting of present genus and Certhidea, Platyspiza and Camarhynchus, known collectively as “Darwin’s finches”, is allied to the tanagers (Thraupidae), being closest to Coereba, Tiaris and several Caribbean genera. Present species hybridizes rarely with G. fuliginosa and with G. scandens; on Santa Cruz, large-scale hybridization with G. magnirostris thought to have occurred. Monotypic.

Distribution: Galapagos Is: islands of Pinta (Abington), Marchena (Bindloe), Fernandina (Narborough), Isabela (Albemarle), Santiago (James), Rábida (Jervis), Pinzón (Duncan), Baltra (Seymour), Santa Cruz (Indefatigable), Santa Fe (Barrington), Floreana (Charles) and offshore islets, and San Cristóbal (Chatham).