The Beak of the Finch Character Analysis

Jonathan Weiner

Jonathan Weiner is the author and narrator of The Beak of the Finch. A renowned writer whose work primarily focuses on nonfiction and science writing, Weiner talked and traveled with the scientists Peter and… read analysis of Jonathan Weiner

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin was an English naturalist who lived from 1809-1882. He was a geologist and biologist who is renowned in the modern world for his contributions to the science of evolution. He pioneered the theory… read analysis of Charles Darwin

Peter and Rosemary Grant

Peter and Rosemary Grant are a married pair of evolutionary biologists and professors emeritus at Princeton University. The two are best known for their work studying Darwin’s finches on the island of Daphne Major… read analysis of Peter and Rosemary Grant

Peter Boag

Peter Boag is a contemporary of Peter and Rosemary Grant’s who conducted research on Darwin’s finches on the island of Daphne Major in 1976 and 1977. During this time, the island was experiencing… read analysis of Peter Boag

Dolph Schluter

Dolph Schluter is Peter and Rosemary Grant’s former mentee and one of the foremost researchers on Darwinian divergence in the modern era. While working with the Grants, Schluter studied the beaks of the finches… read analysis of Dolph Schluter

Trevor Price

Trevor Price was a student of Peter Grant’s who was stationed on Daphne Major beginning in 1979. During his tenure on the island, Price observed the “comedy of sexual selection” that influenced how… read analysis of Trevor Price

Lisle Gibbs

Lisle Gibbs was a graduate student of Peter Grant’s who took up the watch on Daphne Major after Trevor Price left. Price had been waiting for rain to come to the island, because he… read analysis of Lisle Gibbs

Captain FitzRoy

Captain FitzRoy was the captain of the HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin’s famous voyage to the Galápagos, during which Darwin gathered the specimens that would come to influence his views on natural selection and… read analysis of Captain FitzRoy

David Lack

David Lack was a British ornithologist who traveled to the Galápagos in the 1930s to study Darwin’s finches. He eventually concluded that the many species of finch on the island were constantly specializing to… read analysis of David Lack

Charles Lyell

Charles Lyell was a Scottish geologist whose Principles of Geology, published in 1833, presented a theory that the Earth was still changing and evolving. Lyell’s views were deemed heretical at the time—but they greatly… read analysis of Charles Lyell

John Endler

John Endler is a naturalist who became well-known in the 1970s for his research with guppies found in the rivers and streams of northeast South America. Through a series of experiments both in the wild… read analysis of John Endler

Minor Characters

Jamie Smith

Jamie Smith is a Canadian biologist and former field assistant of the Grants’ who became well-known for his research on the selective behaviors of sparrows living on the island of Mandarte off the coast of British Columbia.

Martin Taylor

Martin Taylor is a researcher in the Grants’ laboratory at Princeton. Taylor was, at the time of the writing of The Beak of the Finch, studying the DNA of pesticide-resistant moths in the United States of America’s cotton belt.

The Beak of the Finch Characters