Red-footed booby

How it lives

Red-footed boobies nest in colonies, in trees rather than on the ground like other boobies. A pair lays one chalky blue egg in a stick nest. Both adults incubate it for about 41 to 46 days, and the chick takes about three months to make its first flight. After a successful nesting, pairs breed again after about 11 to 15 months. NZ Birds Online says birds can live to at least 23 years.

Where it goes

Boobies nest in a colony and fly out over the sea to feed. GPS tags in the Seychelles showed most birds leaving at sunrise and returning at dusk, spending up to 12.5 hours at sea, while a few stayed out for up to 3 days and ranged within about 200 km of the colony. The Animal Diversity Web says they can hunt up to 150 km from shore. On the Cocos (Keeling) Islands they breed on North Keeling Island, which Pulu Keeling National Park describes as the only seabird breeding colony for 900 km.

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

IUCN lists the species as Least Concern, although Wikipedia notes the world population is decreasing and there are three subspecies. North Keeling Island has about 30,000 breeding pairs, roughly 6% of the global population, according to Pulu Keeling National Park. The park says numbers fell in the 20th century because of hunting and recovered after legal protection. In the Seychelles, surveys counted about 11,703 pairs in April 2019 and 10,344 pairs in November 2019 at Farquhar and St Francois atolls. Strong El Nino years can stop breeding: on Christmas Island, where usually 6,000 pairs nest, only about 30 pairs tried in 1982 and about 60 in 1983.