Unlike lots of animals found on the Galapagos Islands the blue footed booby is not endemic but can be found along the east coast of South America. In fact, I saw one in Panama out in the middle of the ocean. One of the best parts of seeing the blue footed booby was being able to get really close to them without scaring them. They are so tame because they've never been threatened by any human activity. For example, I took the photo above and I didn't use a telephoto lens. One of them was actually nesting in the middle of the nature trail and didn't seem to care when I stepped over it. A few minutes later it stood up to readjust the egg that it was warming under its feet.
I took these pictures on Espanola Island which by far had the most Boobies. I learned that they tend to feed in large groups. I loved watching the plunge diving they did to catch fish. They also feed on sardines, anchovies, mackerel and flying fish but occasionally they'll switch to squid and offal. Here is a video showing the plunge diving, however, I did not take this video.
No comments:
Post a Comment