Having never been connected to a continent, the 17 Galapagos Islands, and many other rocky outcrops and islets, were formed over many hundreds of thousands of years between volcanic eruptions and the earth’s movement. The wildlife that is now found on these young islands somehow migrated across the ocean from the Latin American mainland; it is thought this was mainly via floating bits of land, hence only the hardy, such as  made it across – and, of course, the birds.