Blue-footed booby

Blue-footed booby
Temporal range: Holocene
A blue-footed booby at the Galápagos Islands
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Suliformes
Family: Sulidae
Genus: Sula
Species:
S. nebouxii
Binomial name
Sula nebouxii
Range shown by red area

The blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii) is a marine bird native to subtropical and tropical regions of the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is one of six species of the genus Sula – known as boobies. It is easily recognizable by its distinctive bright blue feet, which is a sexually selected trait and a product of their diet. Males display their feet in an elaborate mating ritual by lifting them up and down while strutting before the female. The female is slightly larger than the male and can measure up to 90 cm (35 in) long with a wingspan up to 1.5 m (5 ft).[2]

The natural breeding habitats of the blue-footed booby are the tropical and subtropical islands of the Pacific Ocean. It can be found from the Gulf of California south along the western coasts of Central and South America to Peru. About half of all breeding pairs nest on the Galápagos Islands.[3] Its diet mainly consists of fish, which it obtains by diving and sometimes swimming under water in search of its prey. It sometimes hunts alone, but usually hunts in groups.[4]

On the Galápagos Islands

The blue-footed booby usually lays one to three eggs at a time. The species practices asynchronous hatching, in contrast to many other species whereby incubation begins when the last egg is laid and all chicks hatch together. This results in a growth inequality and size disparity between siblings, leading to facultative siblicide in times of food scarcity.[5] This makes the blue-footed booby an important model for studying parent–offspring conflict and sibling rivalry.

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2018). "Sula nebouxii". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T22696683A132588719. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22696683A132588719.en. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference GCT was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Blue-Footed Booby". National Geographic. Archived from the original on January 22, 2010. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Drummond, Hugh; Gonzalez, Edda; Osorno, Jose Luis (1986). "Parent-Offspring Cooperation in the Blue-footed Booby (Sula nebouxii): Social Roles in Infanticidal Brood Reduction". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 19 (5): 365–372. Bibcode:1986BEcoS..19..365D. doi:10.1007/bf00295710. S2CID 36417383.