What is North Seymour Island known for?

The most accessible seabird colony in the Galápagos . Blue-footed boobies nest on open ground right beside the path and perform their courtship dance at close range, while male frigatebirds inflate scarlet throat pouches in the bushes at eye level.

How do you get to North Seymour?

It is the shortest outer-island crossing in the archipelago — around twenty minutes by boat from the Itabaca Channel next to Baltra airport, as a day trip from Santa Cruz. It is also on almost every cruise itinerary.

When can you see frigatebirds displaying?

The red throat pouch display peaks roughly March to June , though some males display at other times. Outside the peak you will still see plenty of frigatebirds overhead and nesting.

Is North Seymour worth it if I only have one day?

If you want wildlife rather than landscape, it is the best single half-day available from Santa Cruz — a flat two-kilometre trail through a working nesting colony, plus a snorkel, and you are back by afternoon.

North Seymour, Galápagos — The Booby and Frigatebird Colony

The thing people repeat afterwards

North Seymour is not a volcano. It is a slab of sea floor that was pushed up out of the water by tectonic uplift — which is why it is flat as a table when everything around it is a cone. You are walking on what used to be the bottom.

North Seymour at a glance

Also called	Isla Seymour Norte
Origin	Uplifted seabed, not a volcano — which is why it is flat
Population	None
Access	Day trip from Santa Cruz — the shortest of any
The trail	A flat loop of about 2 km
Famous for	Blue-footed boobies and frigatebirds nesting beside the path

Arid volcanic coastline and turquoise water in the Galápagos — Illustration, not a photograph of North Seymour itself.

Getting there

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

Day trip from Santa Cruz: The shortest outer-island crossing there is — the boats leave from the Itabaca Channel by the airport, and it is around twenty minutes. Often combined with a snorkel at Las Bachas or Mosquera.
Cruise: On almost every central itinerary, usually as a first or last landing because of its proximity to Baltra.
Staying over: Not possible.

What is on the island

1

The nesting colony

A flat loop trail through low bushes and open ground. Blue-footed boobies nest directly on the path margins, courting and dancing at a metre or two. Frigatebird males sit in the bushes at eye level with their throat pouches inflated. Land iguanas underneath. It is the least effortful great wildlife walk in the islands.
2

Las Bachas

Across the channel on Santa Cruz: a white beach with a flamingo lagoon behind it and turtle nesting tracks from December. Frequently paired with North Seymour.

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

The nesting colony: A flat loop trail through low bushes and open ground. Blue-footed boobies nest directly on the path margins, courting and dancing at a metre or two. Frigatebird males sit in the bushes at eye level with their throat pouches inflated. Land iguanas underneath. It is the least effortful great wildlife walk in the islands.
Las Bachas: Across the channel on Santa Cruz: a white beach with a flamingo lagoon behind it and turtle nesting tracks from December. Frequently paired with North Seymour.

The history, which is the point

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

GeologicallyThe island is a block of submarine lava lifted above sea level by tectonic movement, not built by an eruption. That is why it is flat and why its surface is old seabed.
1930sLand iguanas from Baltra are moved here in an early translocation experiment. When Baltra’s own population was later wiped out during the wartime occupation, the North Seymour animals became the source for reintroducing them.
1940sThe United States builds an airbase on neighbouring Baltra. The channel between the islands has been the main way into the archipelago ever since.

What you see

Blue-footed booby — The classic site. Nests on open ground beside the path, courtship dances at very close range, and chicks in season.
Magnificent frigatebird — Males inflate a scarlet throat pouch to the size of a football and sit in the bushes waiting. At eye level, a metre away.
Galápagos land iguana — Under the bushes along the trail. The population here is the source that repopulated Baltra.
Galápagos sea lion — On the rocks at the landing.
Swallow-tailed gull — On the cliffs — the only fully nocturnal gull in the world.

Every species, with the exact sites →

Can you stay here?

No. North Seymour 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

It is a half-day, and it is the best half-day here

Two kilometres of flat trail and a snorkel. If you have one spare morning on Santa Cruz and you want wildlife rather than landscape, this is the answer.

The frigatebird display is seasonal

Males inflate the pouch to attract a mate, mostly between roughly March and June, though some display year-round. Outside that window you will see frigatebirds, just not the red balloon.

There is no shade on the trail

Flat, exposed, and usually walked in the morning heat. Hat and water.

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.
Genovesa — A drowned caldera in the far north with the largest seabird colonies in the archipelago, red-footed boobies, and a short-eared owl that hunts in daylight.
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.

All eleven compared, side by side →

Trips that reach North Seymour

5-Day Galápagos: Santa Cruz & Isabela 5 days · from US$1,225
8-Day Galápagos: San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz & Isabela 8 days · from US$2,085
6-Day Galápagos Multisport 6 days · from US$1,569

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

North Seymour Island