Blue-footed Booby - Ross Feldner

This bird is a real stand out on the dance floor with its bright blue feet, but those blue feet are not just for show, they play an important role in their mating ritual. You can check out the dance at the link in Fun Facts. Their amazing blue coloration comes from the carotenoid pigments obtained through their diet of schooling fish.

Although native to the eastern Pacific Ocean where half the breeding population lives on the Galápagos Islands, they do visit the Salton Sea in California and the lower Colorado River.

The Blue-footed Booby is a specialized fish eater, feeding on small schooling fish such as sardines, anchovies, mackerel, and flying fish but will also eat squid. They hunt by diving into the ocean after prey, often from great heights, and will also swim underwater in pursuit of prey. Boobies usually travel in parties of about 12 to areas of water with large schools of small fish. When the lead bird sees a fish shoal in the water, it signals to the rest of the group and they all dive in unison, pointing their bodies down like arrows.

They cool the air around them by using evaporation, vibrating the bones in their throats to flutter their neck skin.

Accelerating climate change and ocean acidification put them at risk.