Red-footed Booby

White phase bird
Photo by Neil
Oahu, Hawaii, USA

Sula sula

Identification

L. 26-29 in

• Long tail
• Short neck
• Red feet
• Black flight feathers
  • Primaries and, in most populations, outer secondaries
• Bluish bill with pink base
• Bluish skin around the eye

Brown phase bird
Photo by LMG

Brown Phase

• Wings darker than head, neck and underside of body
• Pink face
• Bluish bill
• Most have white tip to tail
• Many have dark brown necklace around upper breast

Brown with White tail

Fundamentally similar to the brown phase except that the entire tail, undertail coverts, and uppertail coverts are white.

White phase

• Entirely white, except for flight feathers
• Distinctive black bar on distal underwing coverts
  • See image
• Yellow wash on head and neck in some populations

Some Pacific populations have most of the tail black, while in the Caribbean and around Australia, the tail is white.

Juvenile

Birds are similar to the brown color phase, but lack the pink base to the bill. They start out with the bill all gray and feet that are dusky to orange; the bill then turn two-colored with dark tip and lighter inner part that may be fleshy. The juvenile also have the head and neck lighter than the upperside of the wing, and compared with e.g., juvenile Brown Booby has darker underwing lacking the white areas seen in the latter.

Distribution

This is a pan-tropical species with nominate subspecies breeding in the Caribbean (only white and brown with white tail) and off Brazil, with rubripes breeding in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and websteri breeding off Mexico and Central America.

Taxonomy

Formerly placed under the name Sula piscator.

Subspecies

Three subspecies^[1]:

• S. s. sula: Red-footed Booby (Atlantic)

• Breeds islands in Caribbean and off Brazil

• S. s. rubripes: Red-footed Booby (Hawaiian)

• Breeds islands in tropical Pacific and Indian oceans

• S. s. websteri Red-footed Booby (Eastern Pacific)

• Islands off western Mexico, Central America and Galapagos Islands

Habitat

Pelagic; rarely seen near land except near breeding colonies which are normally situated on small islands.

Behaviour

Breeding

May breed in any month with nests situated in trees and bushes, rarely on the ground.

Feeding

It is a strong flyer which rarely dive vertically but instead often flies into a wave or hit calmer water in a shallow angle. May also catch flying-fish above water.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2016. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2016, with updates to August 2016. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Red-footed Booby. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 25 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Red-footed_Booby

External Links

Search for photos of Red-footed Booby in the gallery

• View more images of this species on Orientalbirdimages