The Vampire Finch is a bird species known for its unusual habit of drinking the blood of other birds as a supplementary food source.
Shared on social media, a photo capturing the moment a finch uses its beak to drink blood from another bird through a wound on its body has horrified many viewers.
The small bird drinks the victim’s blood to death through a hole in its body (Photo: Wikipedia).
In fact, this photo is entirely real. The image features the Vampire Finch, a species found only in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. This bird has a very unusual diet, primarily based on the blood of other bird species.
Scientifically named Geospiza difficilis septentrionalis, this bird belongs to the finch family and is relatively small in size. However, don’t let its appearance fool you.
They are extremely aggressive, often pecking the skin of larger birds and drinking their blood whenever other food sources become scarce.
A common sight here is when the small bird lands on the back of its victim and begins using its small, sharp beak to pierce through the feathers and skin, before starting to drink blood through this wound.
Despite the fact that the Vampire Finch often targets larger seabirds, it is strange that these victims rarely resist. On the contrary, these birds seem to willingly become victims, allowing themselves to be drained of blood until death.
Victims rarely resist the blood-sucking finch because they believe they are being “helped.” (Photo: Natural History Museum).
Ornithologists believe that this reaction stems from a common behavior among most bird species, where they wait for another bird to come and peck at the insects or parasites on their feathers and skin.
Essentially, the victims do not perceive the pecking as a threat. For the Vampire Finch, its behavior likely originates from this habit but has gradually adapted over time to consume blood as a supplementary food source.
Before adopting this strange diet, the Vampire Finch spent a long time eating seeds and some small invertebrates.
Scientists believe that blood consumption is extremely rare among bird species, as well as most other animals. Therefore, the behavior of the Vampire Finch is considered a unique adaptation found only in the Galapagos Islands.
