Blue-footed booby

Blue-footed Booby
Conservation status
Least Concern
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Pelecaniformes Family: Sulidae Genus: Sula Species: S. nebouxii
Binomial name
Sula nebouxii Milne-Edwards, 1882

The Blue-footed Booby (Sula nebouxii) is a bird in the Sulidae family which comprises ten species of long-winged seabirds. It is on average 81 cm long and weighs 1.5 kg (3 lb), with the females slightly larger than the males.

The name “booby” comes from the Spanish term bobo, which means "stupid fellow". This is because the Blue-footed Booby is clumsy on the land, and like other seabirds can be very tame. It has been known to land on boats, where it was once captured and eaten.

Two pairs on one of the Galápagos Islands

The natural breeding habitat of the Blue-footed Booby is tropical and subtropical islands off the Pacific coast of South America from Peru to Mexico including, most famously, the Galápagos Islands.

Breeding

The courtship of the Blue-footed Booby consists of the male flaunting his blue feet and dancing to impress the female. During the dance, the male will spread his wings and stamp his feet on the ground.

The female Blue-footed Booby lays two or three eggs. Both male and female take turns incubating the eggs, while the non-sitting bird keeps a watch. Since the Blue-footed Booby does not have a brooding patch (a patch of bare skin on the underbelly) it uses its feet to keep the eggs warm. The chicks cannot control their body temperature up until about one month old. They must be fed frequently, so the adults constantly hunt for fish. The chicks feed off the regurgitated fish in the adult's mouth. If the parent Blue-footed Booby does not have enough food for all of the chicks, it will only feed the biggest chick, ensuring that at least one will survive.

Diet

The Blue-footed Booby's diet consists entirely of fish. It dives into the ocean, sometimes from a great height, and swims underwater in pursuit of its prey. It hunts singly, in pairs or in larger flocks. When the lead bird sees a fish shoal in the water, it will signal the rest of the group and they will all dive together to catch the fish. Surprisingly, individuals do not eat with the hunting group, preferring to eat on their own, usually in the early morning or late afternoon.

Pop Culture

• The booby is the subject of a poem by James Tate, entitled The Blue Booby.
• The booby is frequently referenced in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Galapagos.
• Captain Kangaroo featured a musical short film about "the blue-footed booby that makes its home in an old volcano off the coast of Ecuador."^{[citation needed]}

Nesting Blue-footed Booby	Pair fishing	Pair in mid-dive	Ocean impact of two Blue-footed Boobys
Male courtship display

Donate to Wikimedia