Galapagos Birds – Blue-footed Booby
The blue-footed booby is easily recognizable by its distinctive bright blue feet, which is a sexually selected trait. Males display their feet in an elaborate mating ritual by lifting their feet up and down while strutting before the female.
The name booby comes from the Spanish word bobo (‘stupid’, ‘fool’, or ‘clown’) because the Blue-footed Booby is, like other seabirds, clumsy on land. They are also regarded as foolish for their apparent fearlessness of humans.
