The Galapagos blue-footed booby, Sula nebouxii, is the most common booby in the archipelago. It nests near the coast of most of the islands and feeds close to shore. This video shows blue-footed boobies filmed during their courtship ritual. You can see the birds displaying their blue feet to each other and holding their wings back while tilting their bills up, a behavior called sky-pointing. Although both male and female are approximately the same size, they can be distinguished by their vocalizations and their eyes. The female's voice is a definite honk, while the male whistles during courtship. The female's eye has a noticeably larger pupil. In this sequence, the male booby is the one seeking the female's attention with a sky-pointing behavior. Credit: Richard Benz, Wickliffe School.
