Dive Into Your Imagination

Blue-footed booby birds are seabirds that get their names from the Spanish term ‘bobo’ which means dunce. They can be very tame and land on boats which made them easy prey for sailors. Blue-footed booby birds live in tropical and subtropical islands in the Pacific Ocean, all of the ones photographed here are from the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. As a marine bird, they come to land to mate. Watch the video to see the mating dance of the blue-footed booby bird!

The male flaunts his feet raising them in the air and then seems to bow and spread his wings for the female. The female will then parade around. Watch them as they point their head and tail towards the sky. Complete show-offs they do this dance to attract one another. They mate every 8-9 months and will form monogamous pairs. The female will often lay a few eggs that they both take turns incubating. As they evolved in Galapagos, they had no predators so they nested right on the ground, often the blue footed booby birds mark their nests with excretion.

They will raise more than one chick if there is enough food. They are fed off regurgitated fish from their parent’s mouth. The blue-footed booby bird babies have a hard time regulating their temperature and need constant parental care for the first month of their lives. It takes the juveniles two years before they grow their adult plumage.

BLUE OCEAN TIP: We often hear about the fact that our oceans are soon to be empty if we do not do something immediately and this is usually tied into feeding the growing population on our planet. What about the marine birds and all the other species that rely on the ocean for its food source, with no alternatives.

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