Angier, Natalie (March 6, 2017). "On Galapagos, Revealing the Blue-Footed Booby's True Colors". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 22, 2022 . Retrieved September 26, 2022. Its closest relative is the Peruvian booby. The two species likely split from each other recently due to their shared ecological and biological characteristics. [10] A 2011 study of multiple genes calculated the two species diverged between 1.1 and 0.8 million years ago. [11] Blue-footed Booby Population Analysis". Galapagos Conservancy. Archived from the original on October 22, 2017 . Retrieved January 26, 2016. Mates can recognize each other by their calls. Although calls differed between sexes, unique individual signatures were present. Both males and females can discriminate the calls of their mates from others. [39] Population decline [ edit ] Morales, Judith; Torres, Roxana; Velando, Alberto (2012). "Safe betting: males help dull females only when they raise high-quality offspring". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 66 (1): 135–143. doi: 10.1007/s00265-011-1261-8. S2CID 14882787.

BirdLife International (2018). " Sula nebouxii". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T22696683A132588719. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22696683A132588719.en . Retrieved 11 November 2021. a b Todd, W. E. Clyde (1948). "A new booby and a new Ibis from South America". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 61: 49. a b c Drummond, Hugh; Gonzalez, Edda; Osorno, Jose Luis (1986). "Parent-offspring cooperation in the Blue-footed Booby ( Sula nebouxii): social roles in infanticidal brood reduction". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 19 (5): 365–372. doi: 10.1007/bf00295710. S2CID 36417383. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London, United Kingdom: Christopher Helm. p. 266. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4. The blue-footed booby is monogamous, although it has the potential to be bigamous. [16] It is an opportunistic breeder, with the breeding cycle occurring every 8 to 9 months. [23] The courtship of the blue-footed booby consists of the male flaunting his blue feet and dancing to impress the female. The male begins by showing his feet, strutting in front of the female. Then, he presents nest materials and finishes the mating ritual with a final display of his feet. [24] The dance also includes "sky-pointing", which involves the male pointing his head and bill up to the sky while keeping the wings and tail raised. [25]The natural breeding habitats of the blue-footed booby are the tropical and subtropical islands of the Pacific Ocean. It can be found from the Gulf of California south along the western coasts of Central and South America to Peru. About half of all breeding pairs nest on the Galápagos Islands. [3] Its diet mainly consists of fish, which it obtains by diving and sometimes swimming under water in search of its prey. It sometimes hunts alone, but usually hunts in groups. [4] On the Galápagos Islands Also, if you hit the drop-down in the top-left you can opt for the equally wonderful Booty Christmas instead, and replace the naked T's with naked A's. a b c d Velando, Alberto; Beamonte-Barrientos, Rene; Torres, Roxana (2006). "Pigment-based skin colour in the Blue-footed Booby: an honest signal of current condition used by females to adjust reproductive investment". Oecologia. 149 (3): 535–542. doi: 10.1007/s00442-006-0457-5. PMID 16821015. S2CID 18852190. D'Alba, Liliana; Torres, Roxana; Bortolotti, G.R. (2007). "Seasonal egg-mass variation and laying sequence in a bird with facultative brood reductions". The Auk. 124 (2): 643–652. doi: 10.1642/0004-8038(2007)124[643:sevals]2.0.co;2. If you have fond memories of a chocolate-a-day advent calendar in your youth, we’d like to share a wonderful discovery: sexy advent calendars. For the horniest among us, these calendars exist to add a little extra spice and surprise to your sexual wellness journey, so you can explore new positions and sensations.

a b Harris, M. 2001. "Sula nebouxii" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed September 22, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Sula_nebouxii/ Dentressangle, F.; Aubin, T.; Mathevon, N. (2012). "Males use time whereas females prefer harmony: individual call recognition in the dimorphic Blue-footed Booby". Animal Behaviour. 84 (2): 413–420. doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.05.012. S2CID 53159414. Osorno, Jose Luis; Drummond, Hugh (1995). "The function of hatching asynchrony in the Blue-footed Booby". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 37 (4): 265–273. doi: 10.1007/bf00177406. S2CID 23498574.

GIFs

Torres, Roxana; Velando, Alberto (2007). "Male reproductive senescence: the price of immune-induced oxidative damage on sexual attractiveness in the blue-footed booby". Journal of Animal Ecology. 76 (6): 1161–1168. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2007.01282.x. PMID 17922712. Blue Footed Boobies always seem to garner a snigger when people hear the name. It is thought their name derives from “bobo”, a Spanish slang term for stupid- a reference to their clumsy way of walking and how easily the birds could be captured by 18th century Spanish sailors. They often accompany sea faring vessels and have very little fear of humans. Schoolboy humor aside, I could not wait to actually see one of these birds that I had only heard about. Villasenor, Emma; Drummond, Hugh (2007). "Honest begging in the Blue-footed Booby: signaling food deprivation and body condition". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 61 (7): 1133–1142. doi: 10.1007/s00265-006-0346-2. S2CID 301883. The blue-footed booby was described by the French naturalist Alphonse Milne-Edwards in 1882 under the current binomial name Sula nebouxii. [6] The specific epithet was chosen to honor the surgeon, naturalist, and explorer Adolphe-Simon Neboux (1806–1844). [7] There are two recognized subspecies: [8] Anderson, David J. (1989). "Differential responses of boobies and other seabirds in the Galápagos to the 1986–87 El Nino- Southern Oscillation event". Marine Ecology Progress Series. 52: 209–216. doi: 10.3354/meps052209.

Zavalaga, Carlos B.; Benvenuti, Silvano; Dall'Antonia, Luigi; Emslie, Steven D. (2007). "Diving behavior of Blue-footed Boobies Sula nebouxii in northern Peru in relation to sex, body size and prey type". Marine Ecology Progress Series. 336: 291–303. doi: 10.3354/meps336291. The blue color of the blue-footed booby's webbed feet comes from structures of aligned collagens in the skin modified by carotenoid pigments obtained from its diet of fresh fish. The collagens are arranged in a manner that makes the skin appear blue. The underlying color is a "flat, purplish blue". That color is modified by carotenoids to aquamarine in healthy birds. Carotenoids also act as antioxidants and stimulants for the blue-footed booby's immune function, suggesting that carotenoid pigmentation is an indicator of an individual's immunological state. [17] [18] Blue feet also indicate the current health condition of a booby. Boobies that were experimentally food-deprived for 48 hours experienced a decrease in foot brightness due to a reduction in the amount of lipids and lipoproteins that are used to absorb and transport carotenoids. Thus, the feet are rapid and honest indicators of a booby's current level of nourishment. [17] As blue feet are signals that reliably indicate the immunological and health condition of a booby, coloration is favored through sexual selection. Velando, Alberto (2002). "Experimental manipulation of maternal effort produces differential effects in sons and daughters: implications for adaptive sex ratios in the Blue-footed Booby". Behavioral Ecology. 13 (4): 443–449. doi: 10.1093/beheco/13.4.443.

a b Velando, Alberto; Carlos Alonso-Alvarez (2003). "Differential body condition regulation by males and females in response to experimental manipulations of brood size and parental effort in the blue-footed booby". Journal of Animal Ecology. 72 (5): 846–856. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2656.2003.00756.x. a b Díaz, Hernández; José Alfredo; Erika Nathalia Salazar Gómez. "Blue-footed Booby ( Sula nebouxii)". Neotropical Birds Online . Retrieved 9 December 2012. Blue-footed Booby - Sula nebouxii". NatureWorks. Archived from the original on 19 March 2013 . Retrieved 26 November 2012. a b Drummond, Hugh; Chavelas, Cecilia Garcia (1989). "Food shortage influences sibling aggression in the Blue-footed Booby". Animal Behaviour. 37: 806–819. doi: 10.1016/0003-3472(89)90065-1. S2CID 53165189.

Blue-footed boobies make raucous or polysyllabic grunts or shouts and thin whistling noises. The males of the species have been known to throw up their heads and whistle at a passing, flying female. These ritual displays are also a form of communication. a b Drummond, Hugh; Gonzalez, Edda; Osorno, Jose Luis (1986). "Parent-Offspring Cooperation in the Blue-footed Booby ( Sula nebouxii): Social Roles in Infanticidal Brood Reduction". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 19 (5): 365–372. doi: 10.1007/bf00295710. S2CID 36417383. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2016). "Hamerkop, Shoebill, pelicans, boobies & cormorants". World Bird List Version 6.3. International Ornithologists' Union . Retrieved 31 July 2016.Concerns of a decline in the booby population of the Galápagos Islands prompted a research project in its cause. The project, completed in April 2014, confirmed the population decline. [40] The blue-footed booby population appears to be having trouble breeding, thus is slowly declining. The decline is feared to be long-term, but annual data collection is needed for a firm conclusion that this is not a normal fluctuation. Anderson, David J. (1995). "The Role of parents in siblicidal brood reduction of two Booby Species". The Auk. 112 (4): 860–869. doi: 10.2307/4089018. JSTOR 4089018. Drummond, Hugh; Rodriguez, Cristina; Schwabl, Hubert (2008). "Do mothers regulate facultative and obligate siblicide by differentially provisioning eggs with hormones?". Journal of Avian Biology. 39 (2): 139–143. doi: 10.1111/j.0908-8857.2008.04365.x.