Brown Booby

Sula leucogaster

Order

PELECANIFORMES

Family

Booby and Gannets (Sulidae)

Code 4

BRBO

Code 6

SULLEU

ITIS

Breeding Location:

Islands, sandy or rocky

Breeding Type:

Monogamous, Colonial

Breeding Population:

Casual to rare

Egg Color:

White to pale blue green, nest stained

Number of Eggs:

Incubation Days:

Egg Incubator:

Both sexes

Nest Material:

Lined with grass, twigs, and debris.

Migration:

Nonmigratory

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General

Brown Booby: Large, gull-like seabird, mostly dark brown with white underwing coverts, belly, and vent. Bill and feet are yellow. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has gray bill and brown underwing, belly, and vent.

Range and Habitat

Brown Booby: Worldwide in tropical seas; summer visitor to the Gulf coast and Caribbean Sea; casually farther north in western Atlantic; occasionally seen in southern California’s Salton Sea; accidental along Pacific coast. Pelagic, breeds on coastal islands.

Breeding and Nesting

Brown Booby: One to three white to pale blue-green eggs with chalky coating are laid in a shallow ground depression lined with grass, twigs, and debris. Incubation ranges from 40 to 47 days and is carried out by both parents.

Foraging and Feeding

Brown Booby: Eats parrotfish, mullets, flatfish, halfbeaks, flying fish, and other fish; forages by plunge diving or skimming the surface to catch fish that leap clear of the surf.

Vocalization

Brown Booby: On breeding grounds emits harsh honking, brays, and hoarse, hissing whistles; usually silent at sea.

Similar Species

Brown Booby: Red-footed Booby dark morph is brown overall with brown underwings and red feet.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden2.

Belly

The ventral part of the bird, or the area between the flanks on each side and the crissum and breast. Flight muscles are located between the belly and the breast.

Vent

Birds do not have two separate cavities for excrement and reproduction like humans do. In birds, there is one single entrance/exit that suits both functions called the vent, cloaca or anus.

Pelagic

The pelagic is a type of bird whose habitat is on the open ocean rather than in a coastal region or on inland bodies of water (lakes, rivers). An example of a pelagic bird is the blacklegged kittiwake.

Parts of a Standing bird

Head Feathers and Markings

Parts of a Flying bird

Field Guide to Birds of North America