I thought that I would start out the continuation of my Blue-Footed Booby blog (say that tongue twister 10 times fast) by mentioning that I took a plethora of photos of these birds – about 100 to be more exact.
Blue-Footed Boobies
The Blue-Footed Boobies are excellent dive-bombers, making big splashes in the waters around the Galapagos Islands. You might think that they do this to go along with their clown-like looks, as perhaps they are performing some high aerial acrobatic stunt that ends in the water as you might see in a circus. But really this behavior serves a very important purpose…food. They dive in the water to catch fish, and are actually quite skilled at this. And believe it or not, when one Booby spots a school of fish, he will signal to his friends by a whistle, and they will all dive-bomb together.
Dive-Bombing
Going back to the mating rituals, the male also presents to the female some sort of gift, perhaps even a dowry, such as a twig or a stone. The male picks up this piece from the ground, and offers it to the female possibly as a symbol of his love for her. Very sweet. (I, of course, would prefer diamonds over twigs.)
Egg Relocation
Going back to the breeding rituals, the Blue-Footed Booby will take an unhatched egg and move it around on the bare ground with its beak, as if relocating the egg to perhaps a better place. Honestly, I’m not really sure why the Boobies do that with their eggs. While it might demonstrate a silly behavior, I am sure that there is a very good explanation.
Mommy Booby Feeding Baby Booby
Seeing all of this up-close during my Galapagos trip was wonderful. Witnessing a wide range of Blue-Footed Booby behaviors (the mating dance, the moving of eggs, the dive-bombing, the gift-giving, etc.), observing a variety of ages (from eggs to days old to weeks old to young adults, etc.), and viewing several different combinations of Boobies (from one Booby at a time, to a mother with an egg, to a mother with a baby, to two adults, to families, etc.) were one of the many highlights of my travels. In fact, the Blue-Footed Booby is one of the main reasons I went to the Islands!
On a Rock…
And Flying Away…All At Once
Most of the time, I was actually quite close to these creatures, sometimes feet from them, as these “tame wildlife†did not fly away when a human came close. On my last morning, however, I witnessed an amazing sight from a distance. On a rock, several small flocks of Blue-Footed Boobies would land, one flock at a time, to what seemed like to add up to be hundreds of Blue-Footed Boobies on one long rock. And then, all at once, they all took off in flight, as if they decided, all at once, that they had somewhere to go! Now that was certainly not a silly sight, but something quite amazing!! Kind of like a well-choreographed dance.
Sweet Travels!
Oh, and maybe I should include one last photo of the souvenir Blue-Footed Booby that I bought for my boyfriend.
All photos by Debby