- Sula sula
Previous name: Sula piscator
Identification
A small booby at 26-29 inches with long tail and short neck and low wing-loading. This species exists in brown color phase, white phase, and brown with white tail, with differing proportions in different populations. Brown phase adult birds share the strong red color of the feet and the black flight feathers (primaries and, in most populations, outer secondaries) with the other color phases and in addition a bluish bill that has a pink base and bluish skin around the eye are also shared charecters. Brown phase in addition has wings (some sources say even the underside of the wings) that are darker than head, neck and underside of body (which is light brown to beige), pink face and bluish bill and most have white tip to tail. Many brown phase birds have a darker brown "necklace" around the upper breast.
The phase that is brown with white tail is fundamentally similar to the brown phase except that the entire tail, undertail coverts, and uppertail coverts are white. The white phase is entirely white including wing coverts but excluding the flight feathers already mentioned, and with a distinctive black bar on the distal underwing coverts seen well in the image by Neil. On head and neck some populations have a yellow wash, and some pacific populations have most of the tail black, while in the Caribbean and around Australia, the tail is white.
Juvenile birds are similar to the brown color phase, but lack the pink base to the bill. They start out with the bill all gray and feet that are dusky to orange; the bill then turn two-colored with dark tip and lighter inner part that may be fleshy. The juvenile also have the head and neck lighter than the upperside of the wing, and compared with e.g., juvenile Brown Booby has darker underwing lacking the white areas seen in the latter.
Distribution
This is a pan-tropical species with nominate subspecies breeding in the Caribbean (only white and brown with white tail) and off Brazil, with rubripes breeding in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and websteri breeding off Mexico and Central America.
Taxonomy
The Red-footed Booby is divided into three subspecies, sula, rubripes, and websteri.
Habitat
Pelagic; rarely seen near land except near breeding colonies which are normally situated on small islands.
Behaviour
May breed in any month with nests situated in trees and bushes, rarely on the ground. It is a strong flyer which rarely dive vertically but instead often flies into a wave or hit calmer water in a shallow angle. May also catch flying-fish above water.
