Blue-footed Booby

Saturday, June 23rd, 2007 in Galápagos

Blue-footed Booby – photo by dichoso (license: Sharealike 1.0)
Click on picture for larger image.

The blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii) is native to the Galápagos Islands and western coastal regions of Central and South America, but about half of the population resides in the Galápagos.

They are exceptional divers and can dive from great heights or (unlike other boobies) from a sitting position on the water. They are carnivorous and feed predominantly upon small fish. They will fly to heights of 15m or higher above the sea and, when they spot their prey, make a spectacular plunge dive headlong into the water.

The blue-footed booby has strikingly blue feet which play an important part in their elaborate courtship dance.

This species has a large global population estimated to be between 100,000-500,000 individuals (del Hoyo et al. 1992), but has an estimated global Extent of Occurrence of only 7,700 km².^[*]

Although global population trends have not been quantified, it is not believed that the blue-footed booby has approached the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e. declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations), nor the thresholds for the range criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e. Extent of Occurrence less than 20,000 km² in conjunction with both severe fragmentation and fluctuation/declines). As such, this species is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.^[*]

However, the Waterbird Conservation for the Americas categorizes the blue-footed booby’s conservation status as of “High Concern”.

Threats to the general Blue-footed Booby population include climate change, extreme weather, and temperature extremes.

In their natural habitat in the Galápagos, they also face threats from the arrival of humans to the islands including the introduction of non-native species of plants and animals which are altering the bird’s habitats in unpredictable ways.

The Galápagos Islands are home to many unique birds – some of which exist nowhere else in the world. Since humans arrived on the islands, some populations of native and endemic Galápagos birds have been extinguished locally or have suffered severe population decrease.

Blue-footed booby image gallery

Click on each image for a larger view.

---

 

Blue-footed Boobies Diving – photo by Gerald & Buff Corsi © California Academy of Sciences

Two with a view- photo by Gerald & Buff Corsi © California Academy of Sciences

Blue-footed booby eggs, photo credit Glenn and Martha Vargas © California Academy of Sciences

Blue-footed booby – photo credit: Gerald and Buff Corsi © California Academy of Sciences

Blue-footed Booby (Sula nebouxii) – photo by Peter Gene (license: Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike 2.0)

 

---

If you are interested in acquiring wildlife prints of the Blue-footed booby,
click here.

---

Citations:

[*] – IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 09 October 2008.
 

---

Kingdom:	ANIMALIA
Phylum:	CHORDATA
Class:	AVES
Order:	Pelecaniformes
Family:	Sulidae
Scientific Name:	Sula nebouxii