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69

 

Blue footed Booby bird

 

The Blue-footed Booby (Sula nebouxi) is perhaps the most comical and charismatic of the booby species. Who can fail to be amused by its incongruous bright blue feet and almost desperate courtship behavior? The famous blue-feet are important in their courtship dances, one aspect of which involves raising the feet up and down, so the whole bird sways from side-to-side. They also engage in dramatic sky-pointing, described below. Blue-footed boobies feed close to shore, so they're one of the first seabirds seen by Galapagos visitors.

In appearance, male and female blue-footed boobies are almost identical. The male is slightly smaller, but close-up the easiest way to tell them apart is by the size of the pupil (black part of the eye) which appears smaller in the male.

The blue-footed booby occurs in greater numbers in Galapagos Islands than anywhere else and every visitor is guaranteed a close encounter. Their feet and courtship behavior are favorite subjects for photographers but their most spectacular act, diving for for from 50 feet above the sea, is not so easy to capture on film. They can dive in shallow waters, less than three or four feet deep, and viewed underwater, leave a U-shaped trail of bubbles as they dive in then rise back to the surface.
The blue-footed booby likes to stake its ground on a prominent rock on which to perform its display. When the partner comes back from a fishing expedition, the boobies reinforce pair bonds by "parading"— presenting their blue feet in a slow motion dance. Curiously, the intensity of blue differs widely—compare this individual with the one below

Although "parading" is the best known part of the blue-footed booby's courtship ritual, skypointing is the most dramatic. This consists of leaning the head back so the bill points skyward, and spreading the wings, moving them back and forth. This is most developed in males who also accompany their performance with a fluty whistle. All this effort is to attract prospective mates. Hundreds of birds in a colony are performing their displays is an experience never forgotten.

Once the pair is formed and mating is over, the female booby lays a pair of chalky white eggs, about the same size as a chicken's. The nest is a simple ring of guano, which is the chick's entire universe. If it moves one inch out of this circle, the baby booby is completely ignored by the parents. In a crowded colony, this ensures the parents do not end up with the wrong offspring. This photo was taken during a severe El Niño in 1999, a year marked by heavy rain which caused vegetation (horse purslane, Trianthema portulacastrum, in the photo) to grow up in the nesting area. This made it difficult for parents to find their eggs and to move around near the nest. The heavy rainfall also resulted in many nests flooding and consequently many were abandoned before the eggs hatched.

 

1 Blue-footed boobies are possibly one of the world's most fearless birds! Indeed, lacking any instincts for fear and being quite clumsy on land make them easy prey for other animals. When Spanish settlers first encountered blue-footed boobies, they were amused by how easy it was to hunt these birds. To make their point clear, Spanish settlers named this bird "bobo" which means "stupid fellows." Are blue-footed boobies really stupid? Read on and you can be the judge!

2 While most blue-footed boobies live on the tropical islands of Galapagos, some make their home along the Gulf of California and western coastlines of Mexico, Ecuador, and Peru. About the size of a goose, the blue-footed booby is most famous for, as the name suggests, its pair of blue feet. If we were to keep our eyes on its brown and white feather outfit only, we might confuse this bird with others of similar feather patterns. Nevertheless, when we look at the blue-footed booby, our eyes naturally fall upon its bright blue feet. Well, that is exactly what the blue-footed booby intends - not for us, but for its potential mate.

3 When blue-footed boobies are ready to breed, they carry out many interesting rituals. First, a male blue-footed booby parades around his nest area. The parade is anything but ordinary - just in case a female blue-footed booby fails to notice how attractive he is, the male blue-footed booby raises each of his blue feet in a slow, deliberate stepping motion. Alternatively, if he is flying over his territory and encounters a potential mate, he flashes his blue feet at her as he lands. Then, both male and female blue-footed boobies point their long beaks toward the sky, tilt their wings around, and give their mating calls. During the courtship, they also pick up small stones or twigs as building materials for their nests. Strangely, they undo their nests later on just about the time that the female blue-footed booby is ready to lay eggs.

Identification Tips:

* Length: 26 inches Wingspan: 64 inches
* Sexes similar
* Pelagic bird only coming ashore to breed
* Large bird that dives for fish from air
* Takes 2 to 3 years to reach adult plumage

Adult

* Pale, streaked head
* Dark mantle with white patches on nape and rump
* White underparts
* Dark tail sometimes with white patch
* Large, dark, pointed bill
* Blue legs and feet

Immature

* Plumage similar to adult
* Underparts white with straight line between breast and belly

Similar species:

At close range, the blue legs and feet are diagnostic. Immature boobies of other species are very similar to Blue-footed Boobies. Brown and Red-footed boobies have darker bellies. Masked Booby lacks the pale rump patch and has a more U-shaped demarcation between the dark upper breast and the white belly. Northern Gannets tend to lack the white patches on the nape and rump but at a distance may be inseparable