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Blue-footed Booby — printable fact sheet
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Blue-footed Booby
Sula nebouxii
The blue feet are a live, continuously updated health certificate. Their colour comes from carotenoid pigments the bird can only get from fresh fish, and it fades fast: in experiments where males were deprived of food for as little as 48 hours, their feet measurably dulled, and …
Did you know?
- The blue coloration of their feet comes from carotenoid pigments obtained from their fish diet, and brighter feet indicate a healthier bird.
- The name comes from the Spanish "bobo", meaning fool or clown — sailors found the birds absurdly tame and easy to catch on land. Boobies often dive in coordinated groups, hitting the water simultaneously, which appears to prevent a fish school from simply scattering. Their eyes are set forward on the head for binocular vision, which they need to judge the distance to a moving fish while falling at 60 mph.
What I learned
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