Bright red feet and a blue bill mark adulthood; young birds begin with much quieter colours.
- Local names
- Ua ao
- Habitat
- Motu and shore
About this species
Adult red-footed boobies have red feet, a blue bill and a wingspan of roughly 1.4–1.5 m. White, downy chicks grow into juveniles with dark bills and pale feet. Adults occur in different plumages: a white form with dark flight feathers and a brown form, described as the more common form in the atoll guide.
They travel more than a hundred kilometres from shore, sometimes several hundred, to take fish, crustaceans and cephalopods. The guide describes feeding by day and night. Folding their wings, they can plunge from several tens of metres above the sea to pursue prey below the surface. Land is their place to rest and breed.
Breeding takes place throughout the year in colonies, sometimes very large, in shrubs and trees. A substantial platform of twigs and other plant material holds a single whitish egg. Both parents incubate it for about 45 days, then tend the chick for more than 100 days.
The guide recorded nesting on every motu except Onetahi and Rimatu‘u, and estimated about 5,000 pairs in 2014. These records should be read in their historical context.
In the Polynesian traditions cited by the guide, a booby’s cry could announce approaching danger.
