The Booby is a seabird which can fly, swoop, and swim to hunt its marine prey. The Booby is of a size with pelicans, and has a long beak bill and a almost comical expression. The smooth breast, long wings, and broad feet make an instantly recognizable tropical bird. The Brown Booby sports a dark suit of feathers, and the Masked Booby has a dark bill through the eyes form a "face mask."

But Booby as a word is also a slang reference for dunce or stupid person, and this origin is found in the oceangoing behavior of this tropical bird. The booby used to fly onto ships in whaling and frigate days, and starving sailors would marvel at the lack of clarity in the thinking of this bird’s defense reflexes, thus manifesting the booby as  the original fast food.

A species thought to be extinct, the Tasman Booby, was thought to have fallen prey to traveling sailors throughout the eighteenth century.

While the Booby is far from being listed as conservation dependent, the Booby has had preservation scares in the past. Booby size ranges from two to three feet high and twenty to thirty pounds in weight. Ground nesting in marine birds present risks and not just from natural predators. The Nasca Booby will push the other sibling hatchling out of the nest to die, without parental interference.

The Booby is a species of bird known to residents of  North America and Europe, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and small oceanic islands. Bird watchers observe the Booby making its daily fish hunt on the beaches of small remote islands near Baja and in the Galapagos Islands.

The Booby is known for its upright seabird shape and easily recognizable features, with the eye set in the beak.. Unusual characteristics of the Booby not known to every day bird watchers might be the red or blue webbed feet.

The Booby can be found wandering among the oceanic islands waters of  protected islands or breeding colonies. The Booby is a wildland animal would make an eccentric pet to say the least. The Pelicaniformes order member of the Sulidae  family, the Booby appears similar to gulls, gannets, and pelicans in nature. Boobys need land only for nesting.

Please visit Tropical Birds for information about tropical birds.

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