What is Genovesa Island known for?

The largest seabird colonies in the Galápagos — it is universally called Bird Island. It holds most of the archipelago’s red-footed boobies , huge frigatebird and Nazca booby colonies, and it is the most reliable place on Earth to see a short-eared owl hunting in daylight .

How do you get to Genovesa Island?

Cruise only , and only on northern itineraries. It lies well north of the central group and takes most of a night of sailing each way, which is why fewer boats include it.

What are Prince Philip’s Steps?

A steep natural rock staircase climbing about 25 metres up the cliff from the sea to a lava plateau, named after Prince Philip’s 1964 visit. At the top are Nazca boobies, thousands of storm petrels, and the owls that hunt them.

Why is Genovesa called Bird Island?

Because it has almost nothing else. There are no large land reptiles and no introduced predators, so the seabird colonies are exceptionally dense — and unusually tame, since nothing has ever hunted them from the ground.

Genovesa Island, Galápagos — Bird Island and Darwin Bay

The thing people repeat afterwards

The short-eared owls on Genovesa hunt storm petrels in broad daylight, on foot, walking into the lava cracks where the petrels nest. Owls almost everywhere else are nocturnal. Here there are no daytime raptors to compete with, so they simply changed shift.

Genovesa at a glance

Also called	Tower Island, and universally "Bird Island"
Shape	A caldera flooded by the sea — you anchor inside the crater
Population	None
Access	Cruise only, northern itineraries
Landing sites	Darwin Bay and Prince Philip’s Steps
Famous for	Red-footed boobies and the largest seabird colonies in the islands

Steep volcanic cliffs rising from open ocean in the Galápagos — Illustration, not a photograph of Genovesa itself.

Getting there

This is the part that decides whether Genovesa belongs in your trip, so it goes first rather than last. How you reach the archipelago at all →

Cruise: Northern itineraries only. Genovesa sits well away from the central group and it costs a cruise most of a night of sailing to reach, which is why fewer boats include it.
Day tour: Not possible from anywhere.
Staying over: There is nothing to stay in.

What is on the island

1

Darwin Bay

A coral-sand beach inside the flooded caldera, with a short trail through mangrove and salt bush. Red-footed boobies nest in the bushes at eye level — the only booby that perches in trees — alongside frigatebirds and swallow-tailed gulls.
2

Prince Philip’s Steps

A steep natural staircase up a 25-metre cliff to a plateau of broken lava. Nazca boobies on the open ground, storm petrels in their thousands over the cracks, and the short-eared owls that hunt them.

The visitor sites on Genovesa, on real coastlines. Hover a pin or a row to match them up.

Darwin Bay: A coral-sand beach inside the flooded caldera, with a short trail through mangrove and salt bush. Red-footed boobies nest in the bushes at eye level — the only booby that perches in trees — alongside frigatebirds and swallow-tailed gulls.
Prince Philip’s Steps: A steep natural staircase up a 25-metre cliff to a plateau of broken lava. Nazca boobies on the open ground, storm petrels in their thousands over the cracks, and the short-eared owls that hunt them.

The history, which is the point

Most Galápagos islands are wildlife and geology. Genovesa is those, plus two hundred years of people behaving strangely on a small piece of rock.

FormationGenovesa is a shield volcano whose caldera flooded when one wall gave way. Great Darwin Bay is the crater; the anchorage is inside it.
1964Prince Philip visits during a Galápagos expedition. The natural staircase up the cliff takes his name and keeps it.
OngoingThe island has no land reptiles of any size and no introduced predators, which is why the seabird colonies are as dense as they are.

What you see

Red-footed booby — Most of the archipelago’s population. The only booby that perches and nests in trees, which is why you see them at eye level here.
Nazca booby — On the open ground at the top of Prince Philip’s Steps, nesting beside the path.
Great frigatebird — Males inflating red throat pouches in the bushes around Darwin Bay.
Short-eared owl — Hunting storm petrels in daylight on the lava plateau. Genovesa is the most reliable place on Earth to watch this.
Galápagos sea lion — On the beach in Darwin Bay, and in the water for the snorkel along the cliff.

Every species, with the exact sites →

Can you stay here?

No. Genovesa is uninhabited — there is no settlement, no accommodation and no landing outside the marked visitor sites. You come for a few hours and you leave. The four islands you can actually sleep on →

What we would tell you first

Fewer cruises go, and that is the point

Genovesa costs a boat most of a night of sailing each way. That keeps the numbers down and it is why the colonies feel undisturbed — but it also means you have to choose an itinerary that includes it deliberately.

Prince Philip’s Steps is a real climb

Twenty-five metres of natural rock staircase, sometimes wet. Not technical, but not for anyone unsteady on their feet.

It is birds, and mostly only birds

There are no tortoises, no land iguanas and very little else. If seabirds do not interest you, Genovesa will be a long way to go.

The other islands you visit but cannot stay on

Española — The oldest island in the archipelago and the only nesting site on Earth for the waved albatross. Cruise access only, and a season that decides everything.
Bartolomé — The most photographed view in the Galápagos, a 114-metre boardwalk climb, and a landscape that looks like the moon. A day trip from Santa Cruz.
Fernandina — The youngest island in the archipelago, still erupting, and the largest pristine island on Earth: no introduced species have ever established here.
Santiago — Where Darwin spent nine days ashore, where the fur seals swim in eroded lava grottoes, and where a 130-year-old lava flow still looks a week old.
Santa Fé — A short day trip from Santa Cruz: a sheltered turquoise bay full of sea lions, a forest of tree-sized prickly pear, and a land iguana found nowhere else.
North Seymour — A flat slab of uplifted seabed twenty minutes from the airport, with the archipelago’s most accessible nesting colony of blue-footed boobies and frigatebirds.

All eleven compared, side by side →

Trips that reach Genovesa

6-Day Luxury Galápagos 6 days · from US$3,595
8-Day Galápagos: San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz & Isabela 8 days · from US$2,085

None of them quite it? Tell us what you want and we build it →

Genovesa Island