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back! Fragata Yacht team hopes you’re doing great during these strange times.
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In our previous blogs we had
the opportunity to talk about the two booby’s species inhabiting the Galapagos
Islands: The Nazca and the red-footed booby; today, we’re going to
address some interesting facts about the blue-footed booby, a sea bird native
to the Galapagos Islands.
The blue-footed booby can be found,
in addition to the Enchanted Islands, from the Sea of Cortés (Gulf of California),
along the Pacific coasts of Central and South America to Peru; it is one of the
six species of genus Sula, part of the family Sulidae, and they mainly nest on
the Galapagos Islands (about 50% of all blue-footed booby specimens).
The diet of this bird consists of fish, which it gets by submerging and occasionally even swimming under water; some of its preys are pilchards, anchovies, flying cods, and mackerel. The blue-footed booby, as well as the Nazca Booby (also found in the Galapagos Archipelago), are known for practicing facultative siblicide (the killing of a chick by its close relatives, directly between siblings or even mediated by their parents). The siblicidal behavior generally only happens when resources, especially food, is scarce.
Meaning of the Word Booby:
The name booby originates from
the Spanish word bobo (“silly”, “dumb”, or “clown”) because this bird is clumsy
on land (Nat Geo, 2012).
8 Fun Facts About the Blue-footed Booby:
- Female
specimens have bluer feet than males
- Females
are larger than males
- They
do a courtship dance once they’re are together
- They
nest on land at night
- Female
choose male based on the color of its feet (the brightest blue feet)
- They
nest on all islands of the archipelago, except on Santa Cruz and the northern
islands
- Blue footed
boobies can dive up to 328 ft deep to obtain their foot
Recommendations to See the Blue-Footed Booby:
If you want to see this seabird, we recommend you to take our 8-, 12- and 15-days birdwatching itineraries, specially designed for bird lovers and photographers. There is a high number of blue-footed boobies in the Galapagos Islands, so there is a high probability you see them on our cruise.
