A Nice Pair of Boobies
loading wikivisito...
nature loving bird watchers have visited this page in the last 30 Days.
Boobies belong to the family Sulidae, which also includes gannets. In the Galapagos, there are three boobies: the masked booby (Sula dactylatra), the red-footed booby (Sula sula) and the blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii) shown above. Despite the obvious color differences, the three boobies are very similar in body shape, with the masked being the largest and the blue-footed the smallest. Though small by comparison, the blue-footed booby has, proportionately, the largest tail of the three. All three have torpedo-like bodies with sharply pointed beaks. Indeed, the local Spanish name, "piquero" is derived from the beak shape: "piquero enmascarado" (masked booby), "piquero patas rojo" (red-footed booby), and "piquero patas azul" (blue-footed booby).The origin of the name booby is less clear, probably derived from Spanish "bobo", or clown, in reference to their habit of landing on ships at sea and being easily approached - and killed - by sailors.