Brown Booby

Sula leucogaster

Named for being foolish enough to land on ships. Dives headfirst at full tilt and somehow always comes up with a fish.

Population: >200,000 individuals globally (decreasing trend)
Habitat: Tropical and subtropical open ocean and coastal waters; nests on the ground on remote islands, cliffs, and coastal cays, and roosts on solid perches (buoys, channel markers, jetties, ship rigging) rather than on water
Fun fact: Brown Boobies are famous for perching conspicuously on buoys, channel markers, and ship rigging far out at sea, a habit sailors have used for centuries to tell they're nearing land.
Range: Pantropical seabird found across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans; breeds in the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean (common around Puerto Rico), and other tropical island groups worldwide, wintering more widely at sea; occasional visitor to Florida and California, rare farther north (occasional strays reach Canada and even Great Britain)
Diet: Mainly small schooling fish (flying fish, mullets, halfbeaks, anchovies, goatfish, mackerels) and squid/shrimp, caught by plunge-diving from flight; also steals prey from other seabirds (kleptoparasitism)
Size: 0.775 m
Wingspan: 1.45 m
Lifespan: 26 years

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