English            -             Brown Booby

Portuguese    -              Atobá-pardo

Latin               -              Sula leucogaster

I don’t think the Brown Booby is a hard bird to photograph, but I found it quit challenging to find one to sit still for 5 minutes. I saw plenty of them flying around but because the weather in Cabo Frio was overcast and windy I couldn’t get any really good photos of them flying as I couldn’t get my shutter speed up to where I wanted it. I don’t like playing around with the ISO to much as with my camera, if you go over 800 ISO it really starts to affect picture quality. Anyway………we spent 4 days in Cabo Frio. One day we were walking along the Marina and to my delight a Brown Booby was sitting on a side of a moored fishing boat, so I managed to get some close ups. Once again the lighting wasn’t great but still happy to get quite close to one.

* The latin names for the Brown Boobies means “white stomach”.

* Hunts for fish, squid, etc by plunging headfirst into water from flight.

* Female Brown Boobies are slightly larger than males.

* The Brown Booby has a world wide distribution range in tropical waters.

*  When communicating the female issues a loud honk. Male makes a high-pitched whistling sound.

* Brown Booby chicks show signs of siblicide.

* A group of Brown Boobies are collectively known as a “congress”, “hatch”, or  “trap” of boobies.

* Historically the Brown Booby has been severely impacted by hunting for food, egg collection, and the introduction of non-native species such as rats, cats, goats and pigs. Fortunately, this species’ habit of nesting on small, isolated islands generally unfit for permanent habitation means that it has remained widespread and apparently relatively abundant. There are, however, some concerns that global populations numbers may be greatly overestimated and that this species could be experiencing a worrying decline. But it is classified as a species of “least concerned” by IUCN.