Blue Footed Booby

Cool Facts (Besides the name and the blue feet)

1)     First the male flaunts his brilliant blue feet with an exaggerated high-stepping silly-looking strut.  Then they spread their wings and tilt their bills upwards while they whistle and groan (see below, including video).

2)    The male presents nesting materials to the female like twigs and grass, but then she lays the eggs in a shallow depression on flat ground.

3)    The female lacks the extra skin birds have to fold over eggs and keep them warm—So she uses her blue-webbed-feet which have extra blood flow to incubate them.

4)    Once hatched, the female balances the chicks on top of her feet for one month while both parents feed them.

The dance

By peter-gene