Blue-footed booby

How it lives

Blue-footed boobies plunge-dive for fish, often diving together in groups and sometimes alongside dolphins. They nest on bare ground on cliffs and small islands, without building a real nest, and they keep their eggs warm with their webbed feet. In courtship, the male parades and lifts his bright blue feet, and their colour tells a possible mate how healthy he is.

Where it goes

Blue-footed boobies are not long-distance migrants. They stay mostly along the coasts and islands of the eastern Pacific, from Mexico to Peru and the Galápagos, and move around locally. Most dives are shallow, only a few metres deep.

We only draw a journey on the map when scientists have tracked it or clearly documented it. For this animal we have not found one yet.

Populations

There are two subspecies: S. n. excisa in the Galápagos, often described as slightly larger and paler, and S. n. nebouxii on the mainland from Mexico to Peru. Galápagos birds rely heavily on sardines and have bred poorly since the late 1990s; about 6,400 adults were counted there in 2012, less than half of an older estimate. Peruvian birds switch more readily to anchovies. The species is still Least Concern worldwide.