The red-footed booby (Sula Sula) comes in various colors; although many are mostly white, the one in the Galapagos Islands is mostly brown with some black feathers. It is a large seabird, Sulidae, of the booby family. Adults often have red feet, but plumage colors differ. The red-footed booby, like all boobies, gets all of its food from marine sources. The preferred food of this species consists of flying fish and squids. They are strong and agile fliers, but takeoffs and landings are sloppy. They are commonly found in the tropics, and in coastal regions, especially islands, breed colonially. Within the booby genus, red-footed boobies are the smallest of the birds and are on average 28 inches long (70 centimeters), although their wingspan can reach a length of 3 feet 3 inches (one meter). Typically, adult males weigh about 1.8 pounds or 837 grams. For more than 20 years, red-footed boobies can live. It has red wings, and pink and blue are the colors of its bill and throat pouch. There are multiple morphs of this genus. The plumage is predominantly white (the head sometimes tinged yellowishly) in the white morph, and the flight feathers are black. The black-tailed white morph is comparable, yet with a dark tail, and can without much of a stretch be mistaken for the Nazca and masked boobies. The brown morph is generally speaking brown. Red-footed boobies feed by jumping into surface waters at high speeds and pursuing their prey submerged. Flying fishes are likewise at times caught directly out of the air while they are escaping from submerged hunters.
“Red-Footed Booby”
Red-footed boobies are good flyers and can move in search of food for up to 93 miles. Boobies are well suited to diving and feature long bills, slim and aerodynamic bodies, closed nostrils, and long wings that are wrapped before entering the water around their bodies. The red-footed booby comes to breed only ashore, and he prefers to spend his time at sea. On islands in most tropical seas, this species breeds. It spends most of the time at sea while not breeding, and is thus rarely seen away from breeding colonies. This bird usually nests in a bush or in a tree, but sometimes it nests on the ground. There will be only one blue-colored egg, and both parents are responsible for ensuring that it remains incubated. The time of incubation lasts between 44 and 46 days. Red-footed booby pairs over many seasons can remain together. They perform elaborate routines of greeting, including harsh squawks and the male’s blue throat display, including brief dances as well. The species faces few natural or man-made threats; although its population is decreasing, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) considers it to be a species of least concern. The main threats to red-footed boobies are the thinning of their food supply and coastal expansion by the fishing industry. These birds often vanish from shoreline trees and shrubs as human habitat occupies more of the coastlines of the world.
