Red-footed Booby

“ We have learned to fly in the air like birds and swim in the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers. ”

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

Scientific Taxonomy & Character Information

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Suliformes

Family: Sulidae

Genus: Sula

Species: Sula sula

Descendant: other gannets

Named by: Carl Linnaeus

Year Published: 1766 (12th edition of Systema Naturae)

Size: none

Lifespan: 40 years

Activity: Diurnal 🌅

Thermoregulate: Endotherm

Type:

Reptiles (Archosaurs)
Birds (Sulids)

Title(s):

Stupid Gannet

Other Name(s)/Alias(es):

none

Pantheon:

Terran/Gaian 🇺🇳

Time Period: Pliocene–Holocene

Alignment: Shy

Threat Level: ★★

Diet: Carnivorous 🥩🥓🐟🪲

Elements: Water 🌊, Air 🌬️

Inflicts: Waterblight 🌊, Stench 💩

Weaknesses: Rock 🪨 (50% immune), Electric ⚡, Ice ❄️

Casualties:

none

Based On:

itself

Conservation Status: Least Concern (LC) – IUCN Red List

example

Etymology

The genus Sula was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The type species is the brown booby. The name is derived from súla, the Old Norse and Icelandic word for the other member of the family Sulidae, the gannet.

The English name "booby" was possibly based on the Spanish slang term bobo, meaning "stupid", as these tame birds had a habit of landing on board sailing ships, where they were easily captured and eaten.

Physical Appearance

A red-footed booby is a bird with a solid, slim seabird with very long, slender wings, long, pointed tail, long, pointed bill, and large webbed feet. The red-footed booby is the smallest member of the booby and gannet family at about 70 cm (28 in) in length and with a wingspan of up to 152 cm (60 in). The average weight of 490 adults from Christmas Island was 837 g (1.845 lb). It has red legs, and its bill and throat pouch are coloured pink and blue. This species has several morphs. In the white morph the plumage is mostly white (the head often tinged yellowish) and the flight feathers are black.

The black-tailed white morph is similar, but with a black tail, and can easily be confused with the Nazca and masked boobies. The brown morph is overall brown. The white-tailed brown morph is similar, but has a white belly, rump, and tail. The white-headed and white-tailed brown morph has a mostly white body, tail and head, and brown wings and back. The morphs commonly breed together, but in most regions one or two morphs predominates; for example, at the Galápagos Islands, most belong to the brown morph, though the white morph also occurs.

Abilities

Gannets and boobies employ plunge diving to capture prey underwater.

Of the more than six booby species, these are the smallest. Strong flyers, red-footed boobies can travel up to 93 miles in quest of food. They frequently hunt in packs and have the agility to catch flying fish. Boobies have long bills, slim, aerodynamic bodies, closeable nostrils, and long wings that they wrap over their bodies before entering the water, making them well suited for diving. These characteristics enable red-footed boobies to dive and catch fish that they notice above with their keen eyes. They might dive at night to catch schooling squid that are lit up by phosphorescence. The birds utilize their webbed feet to help them swim once they are in the water.

Ecology

This species is entirely pelagic and only found in the ocean. It mostly consumes squid and flying fish, with an average prey size of 8.8 cm. Plunge-diving is used to catch prey, but flying fish can also be captured while in flight, especially if an underwater predator is pursuing them. It frequently uses boats as observation points and rests there. Most of its range does not experience seasonal breeding. Large colonies of individuals form, breeding and roosting mostly in trees or on islets covered in lush vegetation.

Conservation

The fishing industry, which depletes red-footed boobies' food supply, and coastal development are their main concerns. As human habitat takes over more coasts across the world, the trees and plants along the shore that these birds frequent are disappearing. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the red-footed booby as a species of least concern, though the population worldwide is decreasing.

Behavior

The term "bobo" in Spanish means "stupid," which is how early European colonists may have described these clumsy and unwary birds when they encountered them on land, and is assumed to be the origin of the half-dozen or so booby and gannet species.

Distribution and Habitat

Large seabird found in tropical off-shore waters all around the world; not visible from the mainland. nests on offshore islands, typically in trees and shrubs (as opposed to other boobies, which build their nests directly on the ground).

Movement Pattern: Full Migrant
Individual Type: Solo/Flock
Gather: Congregatory (and dispersive)
Population Trend: Decreased
Population: ugh
Locomotion: Versatile
Habitat: Temperate Coniferous Forests; Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests; Temperate Deciduous Forests; Temperate Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands; Subtropical Coniferous Forests; Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests; Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests; Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands; Salt Flats; Stone Forest; Tropical Coniferous Forests; Tropical Moist Broadleaf Forests; Tropical Dry Broadleaf Forests; Tropical Grasslands; Tropical Savannas and Shrublands; Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub; Mushroom Forests; Mushroom Fields; Deserts and Xeric Shrublands; Badlands; Flooded Grasslands and Savannas; Swamp; Bayous/Billabongs; Riparian; Wetland; Mangrove Forest; Cold Bamboo Forests; Tropical Bamboo Forests; Air-breathing Coral Reefs; Graveyard Vale; Mountain; Sky; Warm River; Cold River; Lukewarm River; Subterranean River; Warm Pond; Cold Pond; Warm Littoral; Cold Littoral; Warm Intertidal; Cold Intertidal; Volcano; Warm Ghost Town; Cold Ghost Town; Ruined Skyscraper.
Earth:
- Extant (Resident): Anguilla; Antigua and Barbuda; Aruba; Australia; Bahamas; Bangladesh; Barbados; Belize; Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (Saba, Sint Eustatius, Bonaire); Brazil; China; Colombia; Comoros; Cook Islands; Costa Rica; Cuba; Curaçao; Djibouti; Dominica; Dominican Republic; Ecuador; French Guiana; French Polynesia; Grenada; Guatemala; Haiti; Honduras; India; Indonesia; Japan/Nihon; Kiribati; Madagascar; Malaysia; Martinique; Mayotte; Mexico; Montserrat; New Caledonia; Niue; Papua New Guinea; Philippines; Pitcairn; Russia; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Samoa; Sri Lanka; Tonga; Trinidad and Tobago; Turks and Caicos Islands; Tuvalu; Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of; Viet Nam; Virgin Islands, British; Virgin Islands, U.S.
- Extant (Breeding): British Indian Ocean Territory; Cayman Islands; Christmas Island; Cocos (Keeling) Islands; Ecuador (Galápagos); Fiji; Jamaica; Marshall Islands; Micronesia; Northern Mariana Islands; Palau; Puerto Rico; Réunion; Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; Seychelles; Solomon Islands; United States (Hawaiian Is.); United States Minor Outlying Islands; Wallis and Futuna
- Extant (Non-breeding): El Salvador; Guam; Timor-Leste
- Extant & Vagrant (Non-breeding): Guadeloupe; Oman; Saint Martin (French part); Sint Maarten (Dutch part); United Arab Emirates
- Extant & Vagrant (Seasonality Uncertain): Russia (Eastern Asian Russia)
- Extant & Vagrant: Hong Kong; Kenya; Maldives; Nauru; Panama; Portugal; Tanzania; Thailand
- Extant & Origin Uncertain (Seasonality Uncertain): American Samoa; French Southern Territories; Guyana; Mozambique; Nicaragua; Norfolk Island; Somalia; Suriname; Taiwan, Province of China; Tokelau; Vanuatu
- Extinct & Vagrant: Mauritius
Berbania/Hirawhassa:
- Extant: none
- Extinct: none
Reinachos/Ityosel:
- Extant: none
- Extinct: none
Thatrollwa/Delphia:
- Extant: none
- Extinct: none
Sawintir/Everrealm:
- Extant: none
- Extinct: none
Agarathos:
- Extant: none
- Extinct: none
Jotunheim:
- Extant: none
- Extinct: none

Tamed

Coming soon

Lore

Despite boobies' more tropical distribution, the fossil record of boobies is less well-documented than that of gannets, either because booby speciation was lesser from the late Miocene to the Pliocene (when gannet diversity was at its highest) or because the fossil species record of boobies is still incomplete because the majority of localities are in continental North America or Europe.

The three gannet species are typically categorized as belonging to the genus Morus, while six of the ten extant Sulidae species known as boobies are in the genus Sula. Prior to its placement in the monotypic genus Papasula, which reflects an old lineage possibly closer to Morus, Abbott's booby was a member of the genus Sula.