Blue-footed booby
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Blue-footed Booby (Sula nebouxii) is a bird in the Sulidae family which comprises ten species of long-winged seabirds. The natural breeding habitat of the Blue-footed Booby is tropical and subtropical islands of the Pacific Ocean, most famously, the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador.
Etymology
The name booby comes from the Spanish term bobo (which means 'stupid' or 'fool' or 'clown') because the Blue-footed Booby is (like other seabirds) clumsy on land.
Breeding
The courtship of the Blue-footed Booby consists of the male flaunting his blue feet and dancing to impress the female. During the dance, the male will spread his wings and stamp his feet on the ground. The Blue-footed Booby is a monogamous animal although they do have the potential to be bigamous. They reunite at their breeding grounds. The breeding cycle of the booby is every 8 to 9 months. When mating, the female parades and the male points his head and tail high to the sky and his wings back to show off to the female. The male Blue-footed Booby also makes a high-piping whistle noise. Males do a dance to attract the females. The dance includes the males lifting their blue feet high and throwing their heads up. The blue-footed booby is not a seasonally reproducing species. They are opportunistic breeders.
