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Booby
Blue-footed booby displaying by raising a foot
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Suliformes
Family:	Sulidae
Genus:	Sula Brisson, 1760
Type species
Pelecanus leucogaster Boddaert, 1783
Species
Sula dactylatra – masked booby Sula granti – Nazca booby Sula leucogaster – brown booby Sula nebouxii – blue-footed booby Sula sula – red-footed booby Sula variegata – Peruvian booby For fossil species, see text.

A booby is a seabird in the genus Sula, part of the Sulidae family. Boobies are closely related to the gannets (Morus), which were formerly included in Sula.

Systematics and evolution

The genus Sula was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.^[1] The type species is the brown booby.^[2] The name is derived from súla, the Old Norse and Icelandic word for the other member of the family Sulidae, the gannet.^[3]

The English name "booby" was possibly based on the Spanish slang term bobo, meaning "stupid",^[4] as these tame birds had a habit of landing on board sailing ships, where they were easily captured and eaten. Owing to this, boobies are often mentioned as having been caught and eaten by shipwrecked sailors, notably William Bligh of the Bounty and his adherents during their famous voyage after being set adrift by Fletcher Christian and his followers.

Six of the ten extant Sulidae species called boobies are in the genus Sula, while the three gannet species are usually placed in the genus Morus.^[5]Abbott's booby was formerly included in Sula but is now placed in a monotypic genus Papasula, which represents an ancient lineage perhaps closer to Morus.

Some authorities consider that all ten species should be considered congeneric in Sula. However, they are readily distinguished by means of osteology. The distinct lineages of gannets and boobies are known to have existed in such form, since at least the Middle Miocene, c.15 mya.^[6]

The fossil records of boobies are not as well documented as those of the gannets; possibly because the species of boobies were less numerous in the late Miocene to Pliocene, when gannets had their highest diversity or because of the more tropical distribution of boobies, many fossil species have simply not been found yet, as most localities are in continental North America or Europe.

Extant species

Image	Scientific name	Common Name	Distribution
	Sula dactylatra	masked booby	Worldwide tropics
	Sula granti	Nazca booby	Eastern Pacific from the islands in Baja California to the Galapagos islands and the Isla de la Plata in Ecuador and Malpelo in Colombia – vagrant to northern Pacific as far as Alaska
	Sula leucogaster	brown booby	Worldwide tropics
	Sula nebouxii	blue-footed booby	Gulf of California down along the western coasts of Central and South America down to Chile – vagrant to British Columbia, Texas
	Sula sula	red-footed booby	Worldwide tropics – vagrant to north of range as far as Alaska
	Sula variegata	Peruvian booby	Ecuador, Peru, Chile – vagrant to Panama

Behaviour

Boobies hunt fish by diving from a height into the sea and pursuing their prey underwater. Facial air sacs under their skin cushion the impact with the water. Boobies are colonial breeders on islands and coasts. They normally lay one or more chalky-blue eggs on the ground or sometimes in a tree nest. Selective pressures, likely through competition for resource, have shaped the ecomorphology and foraging behaviours of the six species of boobies in the Pacific. ^[7]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sula.

External links

• Videos of several Booby species on The Internet Bird Collection