MY SC
Photo by Jeff MauritzenIsland
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Unlike most mockingbirds, the
Galápagos (guh-LAH-puh-gus)
mockingbird doesn’t “mock,”
or imitate, other birds. Found
only in the Galápagos Islands,
off the coast of Ecuador in
South America, this is the most
common of the islands’ four
native mockingbird species. It is
at home in many of the islands’
dry, coastal, and forest habitats.Galápagos mockingbirds usually
live in pairs or small groups but
may live in groups of 20 or more.
Each group defends its territory.
Parents may get help raising their
nestlings, often from their young
of a previous brood. When it eats fruit,^
the seeds are left
in its droppings.
That spreads the
seeds across the
bird’s habitat.It builds a nest of
twigs or thorns in
a tree or cactus,
lining the inside
with soft plant
material.Weighing less
than a tennis ball,
the Galápagos
mockingbird flies
well—but it often
runs instead.Powdery
pollen shows
that this
bird was
poking into
the cactus
flower, likely
going after
nectar or
an insect.With its long beak, it eats
foods such as centipedes,
cactus fruit and nectar,
and ticks it removes
from iguanas.That steam you see rising from
hot foods shows that heated water
is escaping into the air.
Almost all our foods contain
water. We usually think of water
in its liquid form. But, like other
substances, it can take the form of a
solid, liquid, or gas. Water freezes to
form a solid (ice) and evaporates
to form a gas (water vapor).
Water evaporates around us
all the time without our noticing it,such as when spilled water dries up.
When we heat a food, we raise
its temperature, along with the
temperature of the water it contains.
As more and more of the heated
water molecules change from liquid
form to gas, the heated water vapor
escapes from the food.
Then, as it hits cooler air, the
water vapor turns back into tiny
liquid water droplets in the air. We
see this “condensation” as steam.Why does
food steam
when it
is hot?
Joseph Imgrund
Age 9 • Illinois12 NOVEMBER 2019