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Brown Booby
Sula leucogaster
Identify the Brown Booby by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.
The Brown Booby is a large, common seabird of tropical oceans worldwide, dark brown with a clean white belly and a pale bill. Gregarious and energetic, it forages low over inshore waters and plunge-dives for small fish. It nests on the ground in dense colonies on islands and usually raises a single chick. It prefers to roost on solid objects rather than on the water.
Did you know?
- It sometimes steals prey from frigatebirds feeding their young.
- It often weaves plastic debris into its nest.
About the species
Identification
A large, gannet-like seabird with a dark chocolate-brown head, neck and upperparts sharply demarcated from a white belly and white underwing coverts. The bill is pale yellowish; the male's facial skin is bluish, the female's yellow. Young birds are browner, with mottled underparts.
Family
Sulidae
Size
Very large (swan)
Colours
brown, white, yellow, blue
About the habitat
Tropical seas of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans; breeds on islands and coasts and roosts on rocks, buoys and ships.
Diet
Mainly small fish near the surface – flying fish, mullets, halfbeaks and anchovies – as well as squid and shrimps, caught by plunge-diving or in flight; it sometimes steals food from other seabirds.
Behaviour
Highly social, it commutes and forages in flocks low over coastal waters and is a spectacular plunge-diver. It is agile in the air but clumsy at take-off and landing. Pairs may stay together for several seasons and greet each other with elaborate displays. It usually lays two eggs but raises only one chick, and often weaves plastic debris into its nest.
Sources
Photo: Danilo da Castro, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Atobá-pardo.jpg
Text: Wikipedia (English), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_booby
