booby

{{Cladogram

| caption = Cladogram showing the species in the genus Sula.{{Cite journal |last=Patterson |first=S.A. |last2=Morris-Pocock |first2=J.A. |last3=Friesen |first3=V.L |year=2011 |title=A multilocus phylogeny of the Sulidae (Aves: Pelecaniformes) |journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=181–191 |bibcode=2011MolPE..58..181P |doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2010.11.021 |pmid=21144905}}

| align = left

| cladogram = {{Clade

| style=font-size: 80%; line-height: 75%;

|1={{clade

|1=Red-footed booby (Sula sula)

|2={{Clade

|1={{Clade

|1=Brown booby (Sula leucogaster)

|2=Cocos booby (Sula brewsteri)

}}

|2={{Clade

|1={{Clade

|1=Masked booby (Sula dactylatra)

|2=Nazca booby (Sula granti)

}}

|2={{Clade

|1=Blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii)

|2=Peruvian booby (Sula variegata)

}}

}}

}}

}}

}}

}}

The genus Sula was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.{{Cite book |last=Brisson |first=Mathurin Jacques |author-link=Mathurin Jacques Brisson |title=Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés |publisher=Jean-Baptiste Bauche |year=1760 |volume=1 |location=Paris |at=[https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36010460 Vol. 1 p. 60], [https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36211468 Vol. 6 p.494] |language=French, Latin}} The type species is the brown booby.{{Cite book |url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16108821 |title=Check-list of Birds of the World |publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology |year=1979 |editor-last=Mayr |editor-first=Ernst |editor-link=Ernst Mayr |edition=2nd |volume=1 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |page=181 |access-date=2017-11-21 |editor-last2=Cottrell |editor-first2=G. William |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210808171006/https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16108821 |archive-date=2021-08-08 |url-status=live}} The name is derived from súla, the Old Norse and Icelandic word for the other member of the family Sulidae, the gannet.{{Cite OED | Sula, n. | id=193748}}

The English name booby may derive from the Spanish slang term {{lang|es|bobo}}, meaning "stupid",{{Cite OED | booby, n. | id=21393}} as these tame birds had a habit of landing on board sailing ships, where they were easily captured and eaten. Owing to this, boobies are often mentioned as having been caught and eaten by shipwrecked sailors, including William Bligh of the Bounty and his adherents during their voyage after being set adrift by Fletcher Christian and his followers.{{Cite book |last=Alexander |first=Caroline |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QCA7gtcE0b0C |title=The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty |date=25 May 2004 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0142004692}}

Six of the ten extant Sulidae species called boobies are in the genus Sula, while the three gannet species are usually placed in the genus Morus.{{Cite journal |last=Friesen |first=V. L. |last2=Anderson |first2=D. J. |last3=Steeves |first3=T.E. |last4=Jones |first4=H. |last5=Schreiber |first5=E.A. |year=2002 |title=Molecular support for species status of the Nazca Booby |journal=The Auk |volume=119 |issue=3 |pages=820–826 |doi=10.1642/0004-8038(2002)119[0820:MSFSSO]2.0.CO;2 |s2cid=82903466}} Abbott's booby was formerly included in Sula but is now placed in a monotypic genus Papasula, which represents an ancient lineage perhaps closer to Morus. Some authorities consider that all ten species should be considered congeneric in Sula. However, they are readily distinguished by means of osteology. The distinct lineages of gannets and boobies are known to have existed in such form, since at least the Middle Miocene ({{val|15|ul=mya}}).{{Cite book |last=Olson |first=Storrs L. |author-link=Storrs L. Olson |title=Avian Biology |date=1985 |publisher=Academic Press |editor-last=Farner |editor-first=D.S. |volume=8 |location=New York |pages=79–238 [203–204] |chapter=The Fossil Record of Birds (Section X.G.5.a Sulidae) |hdl=10088/6553 |access-date=2017-11-22 |editor-last2=King |editor-first2=D.S. |editor-last3=Parkes |editor-first3=K.C. |chapter-url=https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/6553 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410015830/https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/6553 |archive-date=2021-04-10 |url-status=live}}

The fossil record of boobies is not as well documented as that of gannets, either because booby speciation was lower from the late Miocene to the Pliocene (when gannet diversity was at its highest), or because the booby fossil species record is as yet incomplete due to most localities being equatorial or in the Southern Hemisphere.

{{See also|Seabird breeding behavior#Mating dances}}

Boobies hunt fish by diving from a height into the sea and pursuing their prey underwater. Facial air sacs under their skin cushion the impact with the water. Boobies are colonial breeders on islands and coasts. They normally lay one or more chalky-blue eggs on the ground or sometimes in a tree nest. Selective pressures, likely through competition for resource, have shaped the ecomorphology and foraging behaviours of the six species of boobies in the Pacific.{{Cite journal |last=van Oordt, F. |last2=Torres-Mura, J. C. |last3=Hertel, F. |year=2018 |title=Ecomorphology and foraging behaviour of Pacific boobies |journal=Ibis |volume=160 |issue=2 |pages=313–326 |doi=10.1111/ibi.12545|hdl=20.500.14005/3968 |hdl-access=free }}

{{Species table |genus=Sula |authority-name=Brisson|authority-year= 1760 |species-count=six|no-note=y|narrow-percent=75}}

{{Species table/row

| name = Blue-footed booby

| binomial = Sula nebouxii

| image = File:Blue-footed-booby.jpg

| image-size = 175px

| image-alt =

| authority-name = Milne-Edwards

| authority-year = 1882

| authority-not-original =

| range = Gulf of California down along the western coasts of Central and South America down to Peru

| range-image = File:Blaufußtoelpel (Sula nebouxii) world2.png

| range-image-size = 180px

| size =

| habitat =

| hunting =

| iucn-status = LC

| population = {{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2018 |title=Sula nebouxii |volume=2018 |page=e.T22696683A132588719 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22696683A132588719.en |access-date=13 November 2021}}

| direction =

| subspecies = {{clist|expand=yes

|title=Two subspecies |bullets=on

| S. n. nebouxii Milne-Edwards, 1882 – Pacific coast of Southern and Middle America

| S. n. excisa Todd, 1948 – Galápagos Islands

}}

}}

{{Species table/row

| name = Brown booby|binomial

| binomial =Sula leucogaster

| image =File:Weißbauchtoelpel.jpg

| image-size =180px

| image-alt =

| authority-name = Boddaert

| authority-year = 1783

| authority-not-original=yes

| range = Islands and coasts in the pantropical areas of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans

| range-image = File:Sula leucogaster, verspreidingskaart met subspp, a.png

| range-image-size = 180px

| size =

| habitat =

| hunting =

| iucn-status = LC

| population = {{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2018 |title=Sula leucogaster |volume=2018 |page=e.T22696698A132590197 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22696698A132590197.en |access-date=13 November 2021}}

| direction =

| subspecies = {{clist|expand=yes

|title=Four subspecies |bullets=on

| S. l. leucogaster {{small|(Boddaert, 1783)}} – Caribbean and Atlantic Islands

| S. l. plotus {{small|(Forster, JR, 1844)}} – Red Sea through the Indian Ocean to the west and central Pacific

}}

}}

{{Species table/row

| name = Cocos booby

| binomial = Sula brewsteri

| image = File:Sula leucogaster brewsteri (cropped).jpg

| image-size = 180px

| image-alt =

| authority-name = Goss

| authority-year = 1888

| authority-not-original =

| range = East and Central Pacific

| range-image = File:Sula brewsteri map.svg

| range-image-size = 180px

| size =

| habitat =

| hunting =

| iucn-status = NE

| population =

| direction =

| subspecies = {{clist|expand=yes

|title=Four subspecies|bullets=on

| S. b. brewster {{small|Goss, 1888}}

| S. b. etesiaca {{small|Thayer & Bangs, 1905}}

| S. b. nesiotes {{small|Heller & Snodgrass, 1901}}

}}

}}

{{Species table/row

| name = Masked booby|binomial=Sula dactylatra

| image = File:Starr 080606-6808 Coronopus didymus.jpg

| image-size = 175px

| image-alt =

| authority-name = Lesson

| authority-year = 1831

| authority-not-original =

| range = islands in tropical oceans

| range-image = File:Suladactylatrargemap.png

| range-image-size = 180px

| size =

| habitat =

| hunting =

| iucn-status = LC

| population = {{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2018 |title=Sula dactylatra |volume=2018 |page=e.T22736173A132666363 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22736173A132666363.en |access-date=13 November 2021}}

| direction =

| subspecies = {{clist|expand=yes

|title=Four subspecies|bullets=on

| S. d. dactylatra {{small|Lesson, 1831}}

| S. d. melanops {{small|Hartlaub, 1859}}

| S. d. tasmani {{small|van Tets, Meredith, Fullagar & Davidson, 1988}}

| S. d. personata {{small|Gould, 1846}}

}}

}}

{{Species table/row

| name =Nazca booby|binomial=Sula granti

| image =File:Nazca-Booby.jpg

| image-size =180px

| image-alt =

| authority-name =Rothschild

| authority-year = 1902

| authority-not-original =

| range = Eastern Pacific from the islands in Baja California to the Galapagos islands and the Isla de la Plata in Ecuador and Malpelo in Colombia

| range-image = File:Sula granti map.svg

| range-image-size = 180px

| size =

| habitat =

| hunting =

| iucn-status = LC

| population = {{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2018 |title=Sula granti |volume=2018 |page=e.T22728990A132659882 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22728990A132659882.en |access-date=13 November 2021}}

| direction =

| subspecies =

}}

{{Species table/row

| name = Peruvian booby

| binomial = Sula variegata

| image = File:Fou.varie1.jpg

| image-size = 175px

| image-alt =

| authority-name = Tschudi

| authority-year = 1843

| authority-not-original = yes

| range = Peru

| range-image = File:Sula variegata map.svg

| range-image-size = 180px

| size =

| habitat =

| hunting =

| iucn-status = LC

| population = {{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2018 |title=Sula variegata |volume=2018 |page=e.T22696686A132589026 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22696686A132589026.en |access-date=13 November 2021}}

| direction =

| subspecies =

}}

{{Species table/row

| name = Red-footed booby|binomial=Sula sula

| image = File:Sula sula by Gregg Yan 01.jpg

| image-size = 175px

| image-alt =

| authority-name = Linnaeus

| authority-year = 1766

| authority-not-original = yes

| range = Sri Lanka, Christmas Island, eastern central Pacific

| range-image = File:Sula sula map.svg

| range-image-size = 180px

| size =

| habitat =

| hunting =

| iucn-status = LC

| population = {{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2018 |title=Sula sula |volume=2018 |page=e.T22696694A132589278 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22696694A132589278.en |access-date=13 November 2021}}

| direction =

| subspecies = {{clist|expand=yes

|title=Three subspecies |bullets=on

| S. s. sula (Linnaeus, 1766) – Caribbean and southwest Atlantic islands

| S. s. rubripes Gould, 1838 – tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans

| S. s. websteri Rothschild, 1898 – eastern central Pacific

}}

}}

{{Species table/end}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Commons category-inline}}
• {{Wikispecies-inline}}

{{Suliformes}}

{{Suliformes Genera|S.|state=collapsed}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q612817}}

{{Authority control}}

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Category:Taxa named by Mathurin Jacques Brisson