Booby

This article is about the seabird. For other uses, see Booby (disambiguation).

A booby is a seabird in the genus Sula, part of the family Sulidae. Boobies are closely related to the gannets (Morus), which were formerly included in Sula.

Booby Temporal range: Miocene (Langhian) – recent[1]
Blue-footed booby displaying by raising a foot
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Suliformes
Family:	Sulidae
Genus:	Sula Brisson, 1760
Type species
Pelecanus leucogaster Boddaert, 1783

Systematics and evolution

Red-footed booby (Sula sula) Brown booby (Sula leucogaster) Cocos booby (Sula brewsteri) Masked booby (Sula dactylatra) Nazca booby (Sula granti) Blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii) Peruvian booby (Sula variegata)

Cladogram showing the species in the genus Sula.[2]

The genus Sula was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.^[3] The type species is the brown booby.^[4] The name is derived from súla, the Old Norse and Icelandic word for the other member of the family Sulidae, the gannet.^[5]

The English name booby may derive from the Spanish slang term bobo, meaning "stupid",^[6] as these tame birds had a habit of landing on board sailing ships, where they were easily captured and eaten. Owing to this, boobies are often mentioned as having been caught and eaten by shipwrecked sailors, including William Bligh of the Bounty and his adherents during their voyage after being set adrift by Fletcher Christian and his followers.^[7]

Six of the ten extant Sulidae species called boobies are in the genus Sula, while the three gannet species are usually placed in the genus Morus.^[8] Abbott's booby was formerly included in Sula but is now placed in a monotypic genus Papasula, which represents an ancient lineage perhaps closer to Morus. Some authorities consider that all ten species should be considered congeneric in Sula. However, they are readily distinguished by means of osteology. The distinct lineages of gannets and boobies are known to have existed in such form, since at least the Middle Miocene (15 mya).^[9]

The fossil record of boobies is not as well documented as that of gannets, either because booby speciation was lower from the late Miocene to the Pliocene (when gannet diversity was at its highest), or because the booby fossil species record is as yet incomplete due to most localities being equatorial or in the Southern Hemisphere.

Behaviour

See also: Seabird breeding behavior § Mating dances

Boobies hunt fish by diving from a height into the sea and pursuing their prey underwater. Facial air sacs under their skin cushion the impact with the water. Boobies are colonial breeders on islands and coasts. They normally lay one or more chalky-blue eggs on the ground or sometimes in a tree nest. Selective pressures, likely through competition for resource, have shaped the ecomorphology and foraging behaviours of the six species of boobies in the Pacific.^[10]

List of species

Genus Sula – Brisson, 1760 – six species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Blue-footed booby	Sula nebouxii Milne-Edwards, 1882 Two subspecies S. n. nebouxii Milne-Edwards, 1882 – Pacific coast of Southern and Middle America S. n. excisa Todd, 1948 – Galápagos Islands	Gulf of California down along the western coasts of Central and South America down to Peru	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC  [11]
Brown booby	Sula leucogaster (Boddaert, 1783) Four subspecies S. l. leucogaster (Boddaert, 1783) – Caribbean and Atlantic Islands S. l. plotus (Forster, JR, 1844) – Red Sea through the Indian Ocean to the west and central Pacific	Islands and coasts in the pantropical areas of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC  [12]
Cocos booby	Sula brewsteri Goss, 1888 Four subspecies S. b. brewster Goss, 1888 S. b. etesiaca Thayer & Bangs, 1905 S. b. nesiotes Heller & Snodgrass, 1901	East and Central Pacific	Size: Habitat: Diet:	NE
Masked booby	Sula dactylatra Lesson, 1831 Four subspecies S. d. dactylatra Lesson, 1831 S. d. melanops Hartlaub, 1859 S. d. tasmani van Tets, Meredith, Fullagar & Davidson, 1988 S. d. personata Gould, 1846	islands in tropical oceans	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC  [13]
Nazca booby	Sula granti Rothschild, 1902	Eastern Pacific from the islands in Baja California to the Galapagos islands and the Isla de la Plata in Ecuador and Malpelo in Colombia	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC  [14]
Peruvian booby	Sula variegata (Tschudi, 1843)	Peru	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC  [15]
Red-footed booby	Sula sula (Linnaeus, 1766) 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	Sri Lanka, Christmas Island, eastern central Pacific	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC  [16]