Red-footed Booby

In the Galapagos, the red-footed booby bird has two morphs colors of brown or white.  Their pointy beaks and their fishing technique has given them the local name “piquero” that means lancer.  The red color of its feet can only be seen when they are inland.  There are about 30 thousand birds living in the archipelago.
They can plunge dive into the water at high speed since they have unique cushion air-sac bones in the head to protect the brain from the impact. The eyes and nostrils are also adapted to this way of fishing to avoid water from entering during the high-speed dive. They feed mainly on flying fish and squid, and they prefer hunting at dusk or dawn. They can dive down up to 30 meters in pursuit of their prey.
The red-footed booby has a particular requirement for nesting, as they do it only in trees and shrubs. One of the most important bushes for this bird is the Cryptocarpus, whose conservation is directly related to red-footed boobies preservation. Due that they are adapted to being on trees, they are clumsy on the ground and enjoy of extensive territories.
The courtship ritual involves lifting the head and showing their red feet to females, dancing in the nest, which is also an extreme balanced performance. Boobies are opportunistic breeders; they lay one egg that will hatch 45 days late, they are known to live for an estimated of 20 years. Both male and female take care of the offspring for longer than a year until it leaves the nest.
  
Animal Group:  Seabirds
Scientific Name: Sula sula
Animal Average Size: 66 - 76  cm
Animal Average Weight: 1 kg 

Places where you may see Red-Footed Bobbies  in Galapagos:
Genovesa, Santa Cruz, San Cristobal

It is located on the center of the archipelago, the reason why it is the biggest human settlement, with a population of about 19 thousand people. This island is the most developed in terms of human population that started when one man was abandoned and survived in an old scientific settlement as the Course of the Tortoise tells. The highlands of Santa Cruz are one of the biggest green areas of the archipelago; therefore agricultural activities started on the early 40s and grew rapidly from there. The Charles Darwin Research Station was developed in town on 1959 and has allowed scientific research and conservation projects progress. In between the facilities there is the tortoise breeding center which objective is to rebuild an almost extinct population in Española island where only six individuals where remaining. Today, these efforts have restored the population to over one thousand individuals. Also named Indefatigable after the military British vessel,
The largest accessible lava tunnels.  Underneath the ground hundreds of lava tunnels have been formed by different temperature kinds of lava flow. Some of these tubes are several kilometers long and even though most have collapsed with time and erosion, a couple of them are still there to be visited. They offer the visitor the chance to understand why the stories of pirates and treasures are related to these geological formations.
The biggest tortoises in accessible visitor site. The highlands of Santa Cruz have a big wild population of Tortoises, they walk freely around the private and National Park lands. In our visit to this area, one can notice the difference in size from these animals to others in other visiting sites. There are 15 subspecies of land tortoises in the Galapagos, 4 from which are extinct. They present two different tortoise shell shapes, the Saddleback and the Dome shape. Santa Cruz has tree tortoise subspecies that show both kinds of shells and allow visitors to notice the difference and once understand the evolutionary process that shaped them into this giant prehistoric like animals.
This island has six vegetation zones, each one very different to the others. The contrast of the arid or littoral zone located on the base of the island just a few meters from the ocean, and the scalesia and miconia zones, only to be found in San Cristobal and in this island at about 700 meters above sea level, is portrayed by the landscape and the ecosystems. One of the rarest bush forests stands in the center of the island, spread on top of the Twin Craters.
This island also has some of the largest mangrove areas, a very important ecosystem for all marine life and many terrestrial species. These zones are the nursery of most marine fish and shark.
Tortoises, lava tunnels, white-sand beaches and a picturesque modern town Puerto Ayora bring lift to one of Galapagos greenest, most tropical islands.
 
Visitor sites: Bachas Beach, Ballena Bay, Black turtle Cove, Carrion Point, Carrion Point Dive site, Charles Darwom Station, Dragon Hill, Eden Islet, El Chato Giant Tortoise Reserve, Hacienda Primicias Reserve, Village Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz highlands, Tortuga Bay, Twin craters

One of the oldest and closest to the continent, located on the east of the archipelago, which means it is the farthest of the hot spot of all, about 200 kilometers away from it with no volcanic activity. It is formed by four volcanoes bonded together and is the most humid island due to underground aquifers and fresh water flows. The English named it Chatam because of the British Prime Minister William Pitt of Chatam. It holds the biggest fresh water lake of the archipelago called El Junco, located on the south center part of the island about 660m above sea level.  San Cristobal is one of the two only places where the Red Footed Booby can be found in a nesting colony in Punta Pitt visiting site.
This island is the capital of the archipelago, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, with a population of about 7 thousand people. Human development started on the early 1832, firstly on the highlands on a sugar production settlement. An Interpretation Center was developed in town, where visitors can learn about the biological and historic facts that conform the islands.
Charles Darwin Journey on San Cristobal. This is the first Island visited by Charles Darwin, and his first impression of the dry coast he saw was of a deserted and isolated place. He did not find the tropical richness he expected, but he had the chance to collect the first specie that later on would be the start of his Theory of Evolution, the San Cristobal Mockingbird.
Punta Pitt visitor site is one of the two only places where the Red Footed Booby can be found in a nesting colony and offers an amazing red landscape full of Sesuvium, a very special endemic plant specie that turns color depending on the season. It has a magnificent beach formed with Peridot, a sparkly mineral creation that shines green with sunlight.
Cerro Brujo visitor site is the only place in the archipelago where Red Footed Boobies, Nasca Boobies and Blue Footed Boobies are found nesting together.
Tijeretas visitor site is the very first point that Charles Darwin visited on his journey. Not far from the interpretation center, there is a calm water rocky bay, a magnificent snorkel area and view site for nesting Frigate Birds, animal from which the place takes its name, Tijeretas.
Cerro Colorado visitor site on the southwest side of the island holds the facility of the Tortoise breeding Center, an semi natural area built for the purpose of rebuilding the tortoise population of the island and their conservation.
 
Visitor sites
El Junco Lagoon, Kicker Rock, La Galapaguera Jacinto Gordillo Breeding Center, Interpretation Center Gianny Arismendi , Tijeretas Hill, Lobo island, Pitt Point, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, Puerto Chino, Witch Hill
 

Genovesa Island (Spanish: Isla Genovesa), named after the Italian city of Genoa, in honor of Christopher Columbus, (referred to in English as Tower Island) is a shield volcano  in the Galapagos Islands  in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The island occupies about 14 square kilometres (5 sq mi), and its maximum elevation is 64 m (210 ft). The horse-shoe shaped island has a volcanic caldera whose wall has collapsed, forming the Great Darwin Bay, surrounded by cliffs. Lake Arcturus, filled with salt water, lies in the centre, and sediment within this crater lake  is less than 6,000 years old. Although no historical eruptions are known from Genovesa, there are very young lava flows on the flanks of the volcano. Genovesa is one of the most precious islands to visit in a Galapagos cruise! Genovesa is also known as the “Bird Island“, and it most certainly lives up to certain standard in a spectacular way. Passenger will have the opportunity to enjoy the most representative birds of Galapagos as: Puffball–chicks, white both yellow–crowned and lava herons, Red footed boobies contrasting with the Nazca booby and also the Sawllow–tailed gulls, the only nocturnal gulls in the world that will be nesting at the cliff’s edge.
 
Visitors sites: Darwin Bay, Prince Philp´s Steps