Bird of the Week: Blue-Footed Booby

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Name:

Common: Blue-footed Booby

Scientific: Sula nebouxii

Where It Is Found:

This booby occurs along the Pacific coasts from southern California down to Peru in South America.  The Galapagos Islands in Ecuador are home to about half of the world’s blue-footed boobies.

This bird is listed as “least concern” by the IUCN. 

Relationships:

These birds are just. too. cool.  

First, they have courtship displays that are great fun to watch and really emphasize both the awesome blue feet and the bond developed by the pair.

Second, they sometimes lay multiple eggs that hatch asynchronously.  This means there’s a dominant chick, and the parents will always honor the hierarchy rather than feeding the hungriest chick.  Basically, the most likely to survive (the dominant chick) gets the most parental resources.  It’s a brutal world in the bird nesting colony…

Third, the preference for the bluest feet is shown in both males and females!  It’s not just a matter of female selection.  They both have an interest in bluer feet.  Bluer feet usually indicates a younger bird, and more resources are allocated (by either mate) when the feetsies are bluer.  That’s just cool.

Fourth, the males and females can be visibly distinguished by the amount of yellow in their iris.  The male’s eye is more yellow.  It’s just weird, but I love it.

Distinguishing Features:

I hope it doesn’t seem redundant, but the adult blue-footed booby has feet that happen to be blue.  The blue feet are, in fact, very distinctive.  They’re noticeable, you might say.  Eye-catching, even, in a way that is impossible to miss unless you happen to have a very specific selective blindness to bird feet.  

(Note: color-blindness doesn’t count!  You’re still likely to notice feet different from the other feet, so there.  I said what I said.)

Likes:

Sexy courtship dances, including a slow deliberate raising of blue feet and sky-pointing. 

Really basic nest construction that makes one wonder if any less effort could possibly have been made. 

Fish.  

Family drama.  The blue-footed booby has asynchronous hatching, so multiple-egg clutches can get gnarly in times of limited resources.  Siblicide ain’t pretty, but it’s real.  These boobies ain’t playing around.

Also, the color blue.  

A Note About Names:

No one wonders about the blue-footed part of this name.  But popular culture being what it is, we might be a bit confused about why some species are called “boobies”. 

Who’s never questioned the curious sense of humor of ornithologists?  Or is it taxonomists who confound us?  I’m not exactly sure who gives out the common names, although perhaps the AOU deserves some meaningful looks…

Anyway, the explanation of our scientific or common names usually requires an examination of the word’s etymology.  In this case, the “booby” is inspired by the Spanish word “bobo”.  The word is indicative that the birds were thought to be foolish, probably because they’re a bit awkward on land.  Or because they show little fear of humans.

Let’s tackle both of those observations, though.  First, all boobies might lack grace on land, but they’re powerful aerial acrobats.  Second, most colonial birds nesting in areas inhospitable to humans probably have not learned to fear us, which is a shame.  But that doesn’t mean they’re foolish.  If the great auk is any indication, it’s all simply a deflection so we’ll ignore the overwhelming evidence that humans are just dicks.  How about we stop being judgy about the bird?  

That being said, I still love the name.. and hope to feature a great tit someday!  Because I am easily amused and juvenile, yes.