Red-footed Booby

The red-footed booby was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766, in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae. He gave it the binomial name Pelecanus sula and described it based on a specimen from Barbados. The present genus Sula was introduced by the French scientist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The word Sula is Norwegian for a gannet. There are three subspecies: * S. s. sula (Linnaeus, 1766) – Caribbean and southwest Atlantic islands * S. s. rubripes Gould, 1838 – tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans * S. s. websteri Rothschild, 1898 – eastern central Pacific

The red-footed booby is widespread throughout the tropics of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. In the Atlantic, they mainly live in the Caribbean islands. In the Pacific, populations can be found in the Galapagos Islands, mostly on Genovesa and San Cristobal and in Hawaii, on Kauai. In the Indian Ocean, it is found on Aldabra, the Seychelles, Rodrigues, the Maldives, the Chagos Archipelago, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Christmas Island. New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Records of vagrant red-footed boobies have also increased in frequency in the United States and Canada in recent years.

=== Breeding === This species breeds on islands in most tropical oceans. When not breeding it spends most of the time at sea. In the Chagos Archipelago, it remains close to its breeding colony throughout the year, rather than migrating. It nests in large colonies, laying one chalky blue egg in a stick nest, which is incubated by both adults for 44–46 days. The nest is usually placed in a tree or bush, but rarely it may nest on the ground. It may be three months before the young first fly, and five months before they make extensive flights. Red-footed booby pairs may remain together over several seasons. They perform elaborate greeting rituals, including harsh squawks and the male's display of his blue throat, also including short dances.

Adult red-footed boobies are known to be hunted by coconut crabs; the crabs use their powerful claws to break the wings of boobies or catch them by their legs. One booby attacked while asleep on a low branch was killed by six coconut crabs over a period of several hours, while another caught after landing near the entrance to a crab burrow was dragged inside. Red-footed booby nestlings and eggs are also attacked by a variety of predators, including rats, cats, pigs, and Micronesian starlings, although introduced mammalian predators have a limited impact as the booby nests in trees. Humans eat both red-footed booby adults and nestlings; boobies will bite humans trying to catch them near their nest. Parasites recorded from the species include the tick Ornithodoros capensis in nests and the bird louse Pectino pygus in adults.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the red-footed booby as a species of least concern, though the population worldwide is decreasing.