The Large Cactus Finch (Geospiza conirostris) is a species of bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

 in the tanager

Tanager

The tanagers comprise the bird family Thraupidae, in the order Passeriformes. The family has an American distribution.There were traditionally about 240 species of tanagers, but the taxonomic treatment of this family's members is currently in a state of flux...

 family Thraupidae. It is one of Darwin's finches

Darwin's finches

Darwin's finches are a group of 14 or 15 species of passerine birds. It is still not clear which bird family they belong to, but they are not related to the true finches. They were first collected by Charles Darwin on the Galápagos Islands during the second voyage of the Beagle...

, and is endemic to the Galápagos islands, Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, where it is restricted to Española

Española Island

Española Island is part of the Galápagos Islands. The English named it Hood Island after Viscount Samuel Hood. It is located in the extreme southeast of the archipelago and is considered, along with Santa Fe, one of the oldest, at approximately four million years...

, Genovesa

Genovesa Island

Genovesa Island is a shield volcano in the Galápagos Islands in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The island occupies about , and its maximum elevation is . The horse-shoe shaped island has a volcanic caldera whose wall has collapsed, forming the Great Darwin Bay, surrounded by cliffs...

, Darwin

Darwin Island

Darwin Island is named in honor of Charles Darwin, and is among the smallest in the Galapagos Archipelago with an area of just one square kilometer. With no dry landing sites, Darwin Island's main attractions are found in the Pacific Ocean, which is teeming with a spectacular variety of marine life...

, and Wolf

Wolf Island

Wolf Island or Wenman Island is a small island in the Galapagos Islands and was named after the German geologist Theodor Wolf, who also has the volcano Wolf on Isabela Island named after him...

 Islands. This rather dark bird resembles the smaller and finer-beaked Common Cactus Finch, but the two species do not co-inhabit any island. There are significant differences between the subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 of the Large Cactus Finch; G. c. conirostris of Española has a far larger beak than G. c. darwinii and G. c. propinqua of the remaining three islands.

Its natural habitat

Habitat

* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

 is dry shrubland

Shrubland

Shrubland, scrubland, scrub or brush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity...

 and it is commonly seen on the ground. Its main food source is the cactus Opuntia

Opuntia

Opuntia, also known as nopales or paddle cactus , is a genus in the cactus family, Cactaceae.Currently, only prickly pears are included in this genus of about 200 species distributed throughout most of the Americas. Chollas are now separated into the genus Cylindropuntia, which some still consider...

.