Boobies - or bobbies

My Uncle Tom always used to joke that his favorite bird was the red headed, yellow breasted mattress thrasher. I think he might get a kick out of birds called boobies. One of the most familiar birds in the Galapagos is the booby . . . very colorful, plentiful, and of course, the name. One of the primary characteristics of the booby is that they dive for their food, kamikaze-style, sometimes up to 28 mph. This is very dangerous if they do not hit the water straight on or if the water is too shallow. The first booby we met was on the dinghy trip the first day. We came to one of the nesting areas of the blue-footed booby. They nest on the ground and mark their nests by pooping in a circle. Because they are near the coast, they lay up to three eggs, and sometimes, particularly if food is more scarce, the biggest chick may push the other one or two chicks out of the circle. If the chick is not within the circle, the parents may not feed them - or not - and potentially the baby may die. The blue feet and blue beak are part of their ability to attract a mate, so some are more blue than others. The more blue the feet, the better health of the bird, so females tend to try to find a male with the bluest feet.

The Nazca booby is white, it nests on the ground also, and it has gray feet. It lives more inland, and if the female lays more than one egg, frequently the older sibling will kill the younger one. Recent studies have shown that the Nazca booby is more aggressive, potentially as a response to the stress of being the one to kill the other sibling.

The red-footed booby has red feet, obviously, and lives farther inland. Because food is harder to find in the interior, the red-footed booby only lays one egg, and they nest in trees. Both parents incubate the nest, and their chick is tended by both parents. It may take four months before the baby flies, and the parents usually stay together for several years. One interesting habit that the red-footed booby has adopted over time is that they will not breed on islands where their major predator, the Galapagos hawk, lives.