Booby

 

Today's loose watercolor is a Blue-footed Booby. 

So put on your dancing shoes, And a one, two, three, four ... 

You put your right foot in. 

You put your right foot out. 

You put your right foot in and shake it all about. 

Do the booby-wooby, turn yourself around. 

That’s what it’s all about. 

The blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii) is a marine bird native to subtropical and tropical regions of the eastern Pacific Ocean, especially around the Galapagos Islands, which has over 50% of the total population.

Its most notable characteristic is its blue-colored feet, which can range in colour from a pale turquoise to a deep aquamarine, due to collagens in the skin that are modified by carotenoid pigments obtained from its diet of fresh fish. 

Carotenoids also act as antioxidants and stimulants for the blue-footed booby's immune function. Blue feet also indicate the current health condition and age of a booby, therfore blue feet play a key role in courtship rituals and breeding, with the male visually displaying his feet to attract mates during the breeding season.

Its eyes are on either side of its bill and oriented towards the front, enabling excellent binocular vision. The eyes are distinctively yellow, with males having more yellow irises than females.

Fun fact: Did you know that the name booby comes from the Spanish word bobo ("stupid", "foolish", or "clown") because blue-footed boobies, like other seabirds, are clumsy on land. They are also regarded as foolish for their apparent fearlessness of humans.

Its diet mainly consists of fish, which it obtains by diving and sometimes swimming underwater in search of its prey. It sometimes hunts alone, but usually hunts in groups, feeding on small schooling fish such as sardines, anchovies, mackerel, and flying fish. Plunge diving can be done from heights of 10–30.5 m (33–100 ft) and even up to 100 m (330 ft). These birds hit the water around 97 km/h (27 m/s) and can go to depths of 25 m (80 ft) below the water surface. Their skulls contain special air sacs that protect the brain from enormous pressure. Prey are usually eaten while the birds are still underwater.

The blue-footed booby usually lays one to three eggs at a time. The species practices asynchronous hatching, in contrast to many other species, whereby incubation begins when the last egg is laid and all chicks hatch together. This results in a growth inequality and size disparity between siblings, leading to facultative siblicide in times of food scarcity. This makes the blue-footed booby an important model for studying parent–offspring conflict and sibling rivalry.