Everyone loves Boobies, and the Galapagos Islands are a great place to see them. They're exceptionally tame and friendly and will walk right up to you to see what's going on. You can even approach a nesting Booby with a chick without causing any anxiety.
Boobies come in three flavors in the Galapagos - Red-footed, Blue-footed, and Nazca, which have olive green feet. They're sea birds and watching them dive into the water at 70 mph to snag a fish is quite a sight.
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| Red-Footed Booby |
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| Blue-Footed Booby |
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| Nazca Booby |
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| Red-Footed Booby & Chick |
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| Red-Footed Booby Chick |
On Genovesa Island, we walked among a Booby colony numbering in the thousands of nesting pairs. Scattered among them were also many Frigate Birds, the Boobies' main nemesis. Lacking waterproof feathers and webbed feet, Frigate birds can't land in the water and prefer to attack Boobies returning from a successful fishing trip, harassing them until they either release a carried fish or regurgitate their meal, which the Frigate Birds then scarf up. Yuck!
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| Frigate Bird |
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| Male Frigate Bird |
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| Female Frigate Bird |
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