Birds Posters
Boobies
A booby is a seabird in the genus Sula, part of the Sulidae family. Boobies are closely related to the gannets, which were formerly included in Sula.
Boobies are large birds with long pointed wings and long bills. They hunt fish by diving from a height into the sea and pursuing their prey underwater.
Facial air sacs under their skin cushion the impact with the water. Boobies are colonial breeders on islands and coasts.
They normally lay one or more chalky-blue eggs on the ground or sometimes in a tree nest.
Their name was possibly based on the Spanish slang term bubie, meaning dunce, as these tame birds had a habit of landing on board sailing ships, where they were easily captured and eaten.
A large seabird of the warm coastal waters of the eastern Pacific, the Blue-footed Booby is a rare visitor to the West Coast of the United States.
It has even occurred a few times at inland lakes in California, Texas, and Arizona.
The Blue-footed Booby derives its name from the Spanish word bobo which means stupid or silly.
Its lack of fear and clumsiness on land made this bird easy prey for man.
They have no brooding patch bare skin on the underbelly to keep their eggs warm.
They use their webbed feet, which have an increased blood supply and for the first month after hatching, the chicks stand on their parent’s feet to keep warm.
Unlike other boobies, the Blue-footed Booby can dive into the water from a position of swimming on the surface.
The Red-Footed Booby has no brooding patch (bare skin on the underbelly) to keep their eggs warm.
They use their webbed feet, which have an increased blood supply.
The Red-footed Booby is one of the few seabirds who build their nests in small trees and shrubs.
Since there are no predators on most islands where it breeds, this trait probably developed to avoid competition for nesting territory with larger booby species.
The smallest of the boobies, the Red-footed Booby is an uncommon visitor to the mainland United States.
It is seen only rarely off the California coast and at sea off southern Florida, and it breeds in the Hawaiian Islands.
Brown boobies, Sula leucogaster, are common residents of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Brown boobies use coral atolls and volcanic stack islands for nesting in tropical or subtropical waters.
Although they are powerful and agile fliers, brown boobies are particularly clumsy in takeoffs and landings; they use strong winds and high perches to assist their takeoffs.
Brown Boobies were considered the most common booby at Midway Atoll in the 1930s. Today they are a rare sight.
Rats, which have now been eradicated from Midway, are implicated in their decline. In late 1999, the first nest since 1963 was recorded.