White morph of Red-footed Booby (Sula sula), Isla Genovesa / Tower Island / Bird Island, Galápagos, Ecuador

The white morph of the Red-footed Booby (Sula sula), a large seabird of the gannet family, Sulidae. Photographed on Isla Genovesa (or Tower Island, or Bird Island), a shield volcano in the Galápagos Islands, in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Sula sula breeds in colonies and is found widely on tropical islands. The Red-footed Booby is the smallest of all boobies at 71 cm in length and with a 137 cm wingspan, and has red legs with pink and blue bill and throat pouch. They are powerful and agile fliers but clumsy in takeoffs and landings. The brown morph of this species is brown with a white belly, rump, and tail. The white morph is mostly white with black on the flight feathers. Young birds are greyish with browner wings and pink legs. The sexes appear similar. National Park visitors follow licensed guides up the steep path of Prince Philip’s Steps (up a cliff 25 meters vertically) to seabird colonies full of life amidst a thin palo santo forest growing in a rocky desert plain.

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Copyright: © Tom Dempsey / Photoseek.com
Image Size: 4800x3334 / 3.6MB; http://www.photoseek.com/; Animalia Aves Ecuador South America adventure animal avian bird equator nature ocean sea life travel vertebrate wildlife animal
Contained in galleries: ECUADOR: Galapagos Islands

The white morph of the Red-footed Booby (Sula sula), a large seabird of the gannet family, Sulidae. Photographed on Isla Genovesa (or Tower Island, or Bird Island), a shield volcano in the Galápagos Islands, in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Sula sula breeds in colonies and is found widely on tropical islands. The Red-footed Booby is the smallest of all boobies at 71 cm in length and with a 137 cm wingspan, and has red legs with pink and blue bill and throat pouch. They are powerful and agile fliers but clumsy in takeoffs and landings. The brown morph of this species is brown with a white belly, rump, and tail. The white morph is mostly white with black on the flight feathers. Young birds are greyish with browner wings and pink legs. The sexes appear similar. National Park visitors follow licensed guides up the steep path of Prince Philip’s Steps (up a cliff 25 meters vertically) to seabird colonies full of life amidst a thin palo santo forest growing in a rocky desert plain.