What is "blue-footed booby"

Booby \Boo"by\ (b[=oo]"b[y^]), n.; pl. Boobies (-b[i^]z). [Sp. bobo dunce, idiot; cf. L. balbus stammering, E. barbarous.]

1. A dunce; a stupid fellow.

2. (Zo["o]l.)

   1. A swimming bird ( Sula fiber or Sula sula) related to the common gannet, and found in the West Indies, nesting on the bare rocks. It is so called on account of its apparent stupidity -- unafraid of men, it allows itself to be caught by a simple and undisguised approach. The name is also sometimes applied to other species of gannets; as, Sula piscator, the red-footed booby; and Sula nebouxii, the blue-footed booby.

   2. A species of penguin of the antarctic seas. Booby hatch

      1. (Naut.), a kind of wooden hood over a hatch, readily removable.

      2. , an insane asylum. [Colloq.] Booby hut, a carriage body put upon sleigh runners. [Local, U. S.] --Bartlett. Booby hutch, a clumsy covered carriage or seat, used in the eastern part of England. --Forby. Booby prize, an award for the poorest performance in a competition; hence, metaphorically, the recognition of a strikingly inferior or incompetent performance. Booby trap

         1. , a schoolboy's practical joke, as a shower bath when a door is opened.

         2. , any concealed device causing surprise or injury when a usually harmless object is touched; -- in military operations, typically containing an explosive charge.

The blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii) is a marine bird native to subtropical and tropical regions of the Pacific Ocean. It is one of six species of the genus Sula—known as boobies. It is easily recognizable by its distinctive bright blue feet, which is a sexually selected trait. Males display their feet in an elaborate mating ritual by lifting their feet up and down while strutting before the female. The female is slightly larger than the male and can measure up to long with a wingspan of up to .

The natural breeding habitats of the blue-footed booby are the tropical and subtropical islands of the Pacific Ocean. It can be found from the Gulf of California down along the western coasts of Central and South America down to Peru. Approximately one half of all breeding pairs nest on the Galápagos Islands. Its diet mainly consists of fish, which it obtains by diving and sometimes swimming underwater in search of its prey. It sometimes hunts alone, but usually hunts in groups. The blue-footed booby usually lays one to three eggs at a time. The species practices asynchronous hatching, in contrast to many other species where incubation begins when the last egg is laid and all chicks hatch together. This results in a growth inequality and size disparity between siblings, leading to facultative siblicide in times of food scarcity. This makes the blue-footed booby an important model for studying parent-offspring conflict and sibling rivalry.