Two Blue-Footed Boobies

by Catherine Sherman

Title

Two Blue-Footed Boobies

Artist

Catherine Sherman

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

"Two Blue-Footed Boobies" by Catherine Sherman.

Two blue-footed boobies (Sula nebouxii) stand on the top of a rocky island off the coast of Isabela Island in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador. Algae covers the rocks, and a prickly pear cactus has taken hold.

There are bits of feathers on the booby's beak from grooming.

The name booby comes from the Spanish word bobo (stupid, fool, or clown) because the blue-footed booby is, like other seabirds, clumsy on land. They are also regarded as foolish for their apparent fearlessness of humans.

The Blue-footed Booby is easily recognizable by its distinctive bright blue feet. Males display their feet in an elaborate mating ritual by lifting their feet up and down while strutting before the female. The female is slightly larger than the male and can measure up to 36 inches long (90 cm ) long with a wingspan up to 4.9 feet (1.5 m) and has larger pupils The blue color of the blue-footed booby's webbed feet comes from carotenoid pigments from its diet of fresh fish. Dull feet indicate a poor diet or ill health.
The Galapagos Islands are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The islands are famed for their vast number of endemic (unique) species and were studied by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle. His observations and collections contributed to the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.

Featured in "Whats New" group (04/21/2019); "Images That Excite You" group (04/22/2019); "USA Photographers Only" group (07/27/2019)

Uploaded

April 20th, 2019

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