The blue-footed booby is a goose sized tropical sea bird that breeds on islands off the Pacific coast.  It catches fish in spectacular plunging dives beneath the surface of the waves The blue footed booby is one of the owrld's most comical looking seabirds.  It has dazzling blue webbed feet, a cigar shaped body, and long pointed wings and tail.  Its tapering, pointed bull with seperated edges is ideal for grasping the slippery fish that are its prey..

Breeding During the breeding season, which is year young, the males stage elaborate courtship deplays (see back page). After mating, two to three eggs are laid in a shallow depression on flat or gently sloping ground. Both male and female take turns incubating the eggs.

Unlike most birds, the blue-footed booby, along with its relatatives the gannet, the cormorant, the tropicalbird, and the pelican, lacks patches of bare skin, called brooding patchess, that erve to transmit heat from the birds body to the eggs.Instead, the booby incubates the eggs beneath its broad, webbed feet.  The feet have an increased blood supply which conveys heat to the eggs, maintaining a constant temperature of 103º F.

When the chicks start to hatch, the booby supports the eggs on the tops of its feet.  The chicks , which have only a sparse covering of down, aree brooded here.  Chicks feed from both the male and the female, thrusting thier bills inside their parents to obtain regurgitated fish.  The male brings in a sonstant supply of small fish for the chicks, who must be fed continualy.  If food is scarce, the larger of the chicks will be fed at the expense of the survival of its smaller, weaker nest mates.  This behavior ensures that at least one chick in each brood will survive.  If more food is available, all the chicks may survive.

Food & Feeding: The  blue-footed booby spends uch of its time gliding purposefully over the water, bill angled downward, watching the surface for signs of fish.  It can dive from heights  of up to 80-  feet.  Streaking downward at great speed, with wings angled in close to it body, it hits the water with barely a splash and resurfaces several yards away with its catch.  Sometimes it will catch flying fish in midair. Unlike other boobies, the bluefootedbooy wil aslo catch fish by diving below the water from a simming position on the surface.

Although it feeds alone, the bird will cooperate within a flock of boobies to hunt fish.  The fitrst biird to spot a fish gives a single whistle as a rallying call; the rest of teh group follows the first as it dives into the water.  Their movements are perfectly synchronized. The blue-footed booby feeds mainly in the early morning and late afternoon, possibly to avoid the attention of the frigatebird, who might steal its food. The male booby is adapted for catching one size of prey while teh female is adapted for another.  The lighter, more maneuyverable male can dive into extremely shallow water in order to catch relatively small fish.  The much heavier female catches larger fish further offshore in deeper water.  Between them they can exploit a wide variety of prey.

Key Facts: Sizes, Weight, breeding, lifestyle, related Species
Length: 30 to 33 in. Females larger.
Weight: Male, 3 lbs.. Female, 4lbs.

Breeding:
Sexual Maturity: 3 to 4 years.
Breeding Season: Amost year round on Galapagos.
Incubation: 41  days.
No of Eggs:  2 to 3

Lifestyle:
Habit: Feeds signly or communally
Diet: Fish.
Call: Short, high pitched squeaks.
Life Span: 17 or more years

Related Species: There are nine species of gannet and booby the gannet in temperate waters, the boobies in tropical and subtropical waters.
Distribution: Breeds ion arid islands in teh Gulf of Calironia, off the west coast of Mexica, on islands along the coast of Ecuador and northen Peru, and on many of the Galapagos Islands.
Conservation:  There are less tahn 40,000 breeding pairs, half of which live on the Galapagoes Islands, where the species is legally protected.  Egg collctors pose a minr threat elsewhere.

Features of the Blue-Footed Booby:

Flight display: The male also flashes his feet at his mate in an airborane "salute" while landing afer making a courtship flight over his territory
Courting Rituals: The male parades around his nesting terrritory, flaunting his blue feet in an xaggerated, high stepping walk, and presents small pieces of nest material to the female.
Pointing display: Each bird angles its bill to the sjky and tilts its around so that the upper faces are angled forward.  The male then utters a thin, piercing whistle, while the female gives graoning calls.

Did you know:
The name "booby" come from the Spanish word bobo which means "stupid fellow." The blue-footed booby is so called because its lack of fear and its clumsiness on land have made it easy prey for man.
The pupils in the females eyes appear larger than the male's.  This is an illusion- the female has rings of dark pigment around her pupils that make them look bigger.
The blue-footed booby likes plenty of space around its nest, but its relative the gannet may pack as many as seven nests in a square yard at itss breeding colony.

Characteristics
The blue-footed booby has brown and white plumage that greatly contrast withits bright blue feet and greenish-gray bill.  Its head is pale brown and streaked with whitish feathers.,  Like the many other animals of the Galapagoes Islands, the blue-footed booby is remarkable tame.  As a result, it is one of the most photographed of all the birds species.

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