This finch is endemic to the Galapagos Islands. It has a large, deep bill for searching tree bark and leaves for insects and uses habitats from arid coasts to humid forest.
It is the largest and heaviest-bodied tree finch and has a heavy, parrot-like bill about as long as it is deep.
It pecks at twig bark and leaf stalks for adult and larval arthropods and also eats fruit in humid Scalesia forest during the dry season. It nests high in the canopy; the female incubates and both parents feed the chicks.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.