The red-footed booby (Sula sula) is a large seabird of the booby family, Sulidae. Adults always have red feet, but the colour of the plumage varies. They are powerful and agile fliers, harnessing the wind to fly efficiently, but they are clumsy in takeoffs and landings. They forage by catching flying fish from above the ocean's surface and by performing shallow dives. They are found widely in the tropics, and breed colonially in coastal regions, especially isolated islands such as St. Brandon, Mauritius (Cargados Carajos shoals), and the Chagos Archipelago. Although its population is declining, it is considered to be a least-concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It faces threats from climate change, competition with fisheries, human disturbance, and invasive species.
>>>PUT SHARE BUTTONS HERE<<<
👉 Red-footed booby in the context of Desecheo National Wildlife Refuge
The Desecheo National Wildlife Refuge (Spanish: Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre de Desecheo) is a National Wildlife Refuge in Puerto Rico. It is part of the Caribbean Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
The island of Desecheo is located 14 miles (23 km) west of Puerto Rico and is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the north and the Caribbean Sea on the south. The refuge encompasses the entire rugged island. From 1940 to 1952 the island was used as a practice target for aerial bombardment by the US War Department and from 1952 to 1960 Desecheo was used as a survival training area for the U.S. Air Force. Although formerly containing a colony of 15,000 brown boobies and 10,000 red-footed boobies, currently no successful booby breeding is known to occur on the island.
Red-footed booby in the context of Alofi Island
Alofi is an uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean belonging to the French overseas collectivity (collectivité d'outre-mer, or COM) of Wallis and Futuna. Data shows that Alofi was inhabited until 1840. The highest point on the island is Kolofau. The 3,500 ha island is separated from the larger neighbouring island of Futuna by a 1.7 km channel. Alofi has been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International for its red-footed booby colony and the vulnerable shy ground dove, as well as for various restricted-range bird species (including crimson-crowned fruit doves, blue-crowned lorikeets, Polynesian wattled honeyeaters, Polynesian trillers, Fiji shrikebills and Polynesian starlings).