Male: All white with black flight and tail feathers. Eye, golden yellow. Eye-ring, black. Face, black. Bill, base black, rest bright yellow. Feet and webbing, light grey tinged with yellow, green or blue.
Female: All white with black flight and tail feathers. Eye, golden yellow. Eye-ring, black. Face, black. Bill, base black, rest dull yellow-green. Feet and webbing, light grey tinged with yellow, green or blue.
Immatures: Head, flight and tail feathers brown. General plumage mottled white and grey-brown, with white patch around neck, on rump and on underparts. Bill, brown. Fett and webbing, black. Plumage whitens over four years.
Downy Young: Naked at first, growing pure white down. Bill and eye, dusky.
Other Names (World)
Masked Booby, Blue-faced Booby, White Booby, Whistling Booby, Masked Gannet
American Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia (B), Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Cape Verde (E) (B), Cayman Islands, Chile, Christmas Island (B), Cocos (Keeling) Islands (B), Colombia, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Fiji (B), French Polynesia (B), Guadeloupe, Guam (NB), Guatemala, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iran [Islamic Republic of], Jamaica (B), Japan, Kenya, Kiribati (B), Malaysia, Marshall Islands (B), Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia [Federated States of] (B) (NB), Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia (B), New Zealand (B), Nicaragua, Norfolk Island (B), Northern Mariana Islands (B), Oman (B), Pakistan, Palau (NB), Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Pitcairn Islands (B), Puerto Rico, Réunion (B), Samoa (B), Seychelles (B), Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sri Lanka, St Helena (B), St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Tanzania [United Republic of] (B), Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, United States Minor Outlying Islands (B), USA (B), Venezuela, Vietnam, Virgin Islands (British) (B) (NB), Virgin Islands (U.S.) (B) (NB), Wallis and Futuna Islands, Yemen (B).
Vagrant to Grenada, Maldives, Sâo Tomé e Principe, Spain, United Arab Emirates.
Tropical seas. Breeds on off-shore islands along the north-western coast of Western Australia, in Torres Strait, the Coral Sea, and along the Great Barrier Reef. Uncommon in coastal waters off the mainland.
Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.
Voice
Usually silent at sea. Noisy in breeding colonies. Male, a high, descending, whistled, 'whieeoooo', female, a loud, harsh, honking, 'aarh-aarh-a-yah'.
Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) [XC97607]
by Daniel Danckwerts from Henderson I., Pitcairn Group, UK, United Kingdom (call)
Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) [XC233869]
by Daniel Danckwerts from Tromelin Island, France (begging call, call)
Breeding Season (Guide)
July – December, sometimes later according to the season and locality.
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Nest
A depression in sand or earth, around which twigs, grass or weeds are strewn, and which are added to as incubation progresses.
Eggs (Guide)
Usually 2; pale bluish-white, with a coating of lime; ellipsoidal; 65 x 45 mm. Incubation: 42 – 46 days; both sexes, in shifts.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in about 120 days.
Subspecies
Sula dactylatra (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) has been split into Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) and Nazca Booby (Sula granti) following AOU (2000). Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) and Tasman Booby (Sula tasmani) have been lumped into Sula dactylatra following Christidis and Boles (2008).
Hybridization with Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) has been recorded. Subspecies, bedouti, sometimes accepted.
The following 7 subspecies are recognised:
dactylatra Lesson, 1831 - South-western Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
melanops Hartlaub, 1859 - Western Indian Ocean.
personata Gould, 1846 - Eastern Indian Ocean, central and western Pacific Ocean, Australia.
granti Rothschild, 1902 - Breeds islands in Galapagos and off western Mexico. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Nazca Booby (Sula granti).
tasmani! van Tets, Meredith, Fullagar & Davidson, P, 1988 - Norfolk Island. Extinct. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Tasman Booby (Sula tasmani).
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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BirdLife International Species Factsheet