I Love Boobies

Oh, come on! You didn't think I could visit a country that has three species of birds with the name boobies and not write a blog post with this title, did you? Wasn't happening. And get your minds out of the gutter.

Of all the different types of wildlife we were looking forward to seeing in the Galápagos Islands, we were perhaps more excited to see the birds known as blue footed boobies than any other species. Sure the iguanas and the sea lions and the flamingoes and the crabs were all very interesting, but we wanted to see boobies most of all. And not just any sort of boobies. Not the nazca boobies (although we saw them and they are gorgeous birds) or the red footed boobies (didn't see those; we didn't visit the right islands), just the blue footed ones. Sure, we'll take the rest but a trip to the Galápagos without seeing blue footed birds just would have been a huge disappointment. Spoiler alert: we were not disappointed.

So why blue footed boobies? Well, it's certainly not just so I can write a blog post with the word boobies written about 50 times and yes, I promise, I'll lay off that joke. Soon.

I don't know how many David Attenborough and National Geographic specials I have watched over the years about the Galápagos, but invariably the stars of the show are the blue footed boobies. They are a little comical looking; have slightly ridiculous names and mating rituals; and look like they are about as likely to land on the surface of the Earth safely as our Avianca flight back from Guayaquil to Quito which aborted the landing twice (yikes!) before decided to land on the opposite end of the runway (not fun). 

And of course, it's because they have blue feet. How many other species of animal are you going to see with blue feet?

A blue footed booby plus chick.

I know what your first question about these birds is (because it was one of ours): why are they called boobies? Well, first of all it has nothing to do with breasts. Sorry to burst your bubble on that one. Our naturalist guide, Omar, explained to us that it's an English bastardization of the Spanish word for clumsy, which is how the early Spanish sailors referred to the birds because of their odd walking gait and their not so graceful landings. Turns out that story checks out, which is a good thing since as a naturalist he's supposed to know what he's talking about here. The actual word that caused the boobies to get their name is bobo, which translates literally (according to Google Translate) as "fool."

If you visit the Galápagos Islands today, you may very well think these birds are fools for their complete lack of fear of man. I mean you can literally walk right up to them and they'll stare at you in disbelief that you mean to do them any harm; we didn't, of course, but early sailors had an easy time catching and eating them. Today, as it turns out, life in the Islands is pretty cushy for the boobies. Other than maybe frigatebirds, the Galápagos hawk and maybe a human-introduced rat or two, the boobies have no natural enemies. And they are only likely to get picked on by the three predators I just mentioned when they are newborn chicks. Beyond that, they can fend for themselves.

My expectation in visiting the Galápagos this year was that I would get to see one or two boobies and then hear stories about the habits that we wouldn't be able to see, mostly on the courtship, mating and nesting side of life. I figured all that stuff would be done out of sight or harm's way. Certainly not in full view of a group of American, British, Canadian and Australian tourists who would predictably stare, point and take as many pictures as possible before we had to move on down the trail.

My expectations were wrong. Our first land encounter (we'd seen them in the air previously) with a blue footed booby was on Isla Lobos just off the west coast of Isla San Cristóbal. We came across an adult with two chicks standing on the rocks by the ocean with the other parent presumably off fishing for food for one or maybe both chicks. This is what we came to see. Picture after picture was snapped. We even found a booby nearby sitting on a nest. Very cool!! What's next?

Well, next came the kind of thing you get to see in the Galápagos: a very close look at a pair of booby couples mating. Like right next to us, maybe three feet away, oblivious to our presence as all wildlife (well, except the Sally Lightfoot crabs maybe) in the island chain treats humans standing right next to them. This is the absolute beauty of the Galápagos. Nature is so up front and in your face in all its glory. It's literally like being in one of those David Attenborough or National Geographic specials. This stuff doesn't happen away in the bush or behind a wall of cacti or anything, it's all right there for you to see it.

Perhaps it's worth spending a few minutes on the booby mating dance after seeing it happen because it's just amazing. And not surprisingly, it's all about the feet. Generally speaking, the bluer the feet, the more attractive the mate. I've read that if you starve a booby for a couple of days, the color disappears from its feet. Blue feet = healthy mate. Pretty simple, right? 

Mating takes place between a pair of birds and they are "monogamous" for one season, although mating for a few months with one bird before moving onto greener pastures or playing the field isn't exactly monogamy now is it? The mating ritual starts when the male gets the attention of the female and approaches her, with his shrill but muted whistles being answered with some clicking noises from his potential mate. Following that there may be some twig bringing from both the male and female, where one bird will pick up a stick in mock nest making and drop it at the feet of his or her belle or beau or maybe some wing-spreading and sky-pointing, like in the (somewhat fuzzy) picture immediately below.

But in order to woo a female, a male booby needs some pretty blue feet. Nothing else is really going to work. So he'll spend a lot of time showing off his shoes, mostly by performing some sort of high-stepping ritual designed to call maximum attention to his tootsies. The prospective couple will then walk together to see what kind of color they have and circle around each other doing the same sort of checking out routine. Eventually the female will signal her interest or lack thereof to the male and I guess it's game on from there (although we missed any sort of X-rated booby action on our trip).

Sometimes, there's a competition between males for a female. The pair in the third picture in this post briefly had another male trying to horn in on his buddy's action in an attempt to steal his girl. For a while, it looked like she might ditch her initial suitor for Johnny-come-lately but ultimately the first man in got his girl, although she didn't look too enthused to me, like I know as a rookie booby watcher. I guess he must have had some attractive feet, or at least more so than his rival.

From there, it's a matter of getting pregnant and laying a couple of eggs and in the most booby-like fashion, they just make a nest right on the flat ground where any sort of prey can get at it with no sort of protection except a ring of bird poop and one of the parents staying home at all times. You can actually tell how old a booby nest is by the concentration of poop around the nest. Awesome stuff, you guys!

Barely visible ring of poop = new nest. 

Bright white ring of poop = chicks are almost ready to hatch.

Typically, a brood of booby chicks will be just two birds. The 'rents are generally speaking going to be happy if one of the two makes it to adulthood. Yes, in what is the cruelest truth about booby society, the birds have a second chick as an insurance policy. Maybe the first one will get sick or snatched or injured and won't make it. In that case, the younger sibling is up and will get fed like his or her older brother or sister used to. 

This is not unusual in the bird world. Survival of the fittest is the name of the game here and parents are willing to settle for one of their two kids growing up to make something of themselves rather than having just one and having something go wrong. The truth is most booby couples can't fetch enough fish for a family of four. They have to make a sacrifice, which is typically the weaker of the two kids. There was an especially heartbreaking couple of chicks we came across where one was clearly smaller than the other and the larger was stepping on his or her kid brother or sister. Now maybe it was an accident but on the other hand, life is cruel, folks. Even when the perpetuator of that cruelty is a comical looking blue footed bird.

A booby family. Odds are they aren't all making it. 

You still feeling bad about the two chick system? Me too. It's not nice to think about.

During our four days in the Islands, we saw boobies in a lot of places. But not just on land. The booby is for sure a bird which means like most birds, it flies. And in the air, it is as graceful as it is clumsy on the land. Watching boobies fish is a rare treat. These things are amazing anglers. They circle in the air while looking straight down into the water. Once they have spotted a fish below the surface of the water, they gather themselves before folding their wings into their bodies and assuming the shape of a dart and descend at up to 60 miles per hour towards the sea. They hit the water flawlessly every time. If they were in the Olympic diving competition, they'd draw perfect 10s every time. As awesome as it was seeing these awkward clowns roam about on land, it was equally awesome watching them hunt for fish.

We saw some cool animals in the Galápagos and I could have spent some time writing a lot about every species we saw. In the interest of (somewhat) brevity, I've elected to turn the spotlight onto what likely are one of the most fun creatures you'll see there and leave it at that. This is my last post about what we saw on the Islands, although there's probably something lurking around here that talks about what we saw off the Islands. I hope if you are interested in heading 600 miles west of the coast of Ecuador, you'll go see and appreciate what we saw there just as much as we did. Incredible experience, especially with the boobies. For sure, I love the boobies. 

OK, now I'm done with the joke.