Blue-footed Booby
Boobies are seabirds who are in the same family as gannets, but they tend to inhabit latitudes closer to the Equator. The name "booby" comes from the Spanish word bobo, which means stupid. Boobies are so named because sailors could catch them easily and therefore thought they were not smart. The diet of the Blue-footed Booby, such as this one on North Seymour Island in the Galapagos, consists mostly of fish, although they will eat other forms of sea life. The fish they eat contain pigments called carotenoids which are responsible for the blue color in their feet. They engage in an elaborate courtship display that Kurt Vonnegut wove into the narrative of his 1985 novel entitled Galapagos. The male will present nesting material to the female. He will also strut around, displaying his blue feet. The bluer the feet of the male, the more likely he is to be selected by a female as a partner. I made a video about Blue-footed Boobies which can be seen on YouTube at:
Blue-footed Booby
Boobies are seabirds who are in the same family as gannets, but they tend to inhabit latitudes closer to the Equator. The name "booby" comes from the Spanish word bobo, which means stupid. Boobies are so named because sailors could catch them easily and therefore thought they were not smart. The diet of the Blue-footed Booby, such as this one on North Seymour Island in the Galapagos, consists mostly of fish, although they will eat other forms of sea life. The fish they eat contain pigments called carotenoids which are responsible for the blue color in their feet. They engage in an elaborate courtship display that Kurt Vonnegut wove into the narrative of his 1985 novel entitled Galapagos. The male will present nesting material to the female. He will also strut around, displaying his blue feet. The bluer the feet of the male, the more likely he is to be selected by a female as a partner. I made a video about Blue-footed Boobies which can be seen on YouTube at: