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Please remember that many
of the pages in this section include material that has not yet been
published, but is being prepared for publication in the near future.
Please contact me before using any of it.
Brown
Booby
Sula
leucogaster
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This is the commonest Booby off the Pacific coast of northern
Central America. Sightings from the coast seem to be quite rare.
I once saw a booby feeding near the shoreline at the Rio Jiboa.
The light was very poor, so no detail could be seen, but it
was flying low over the water and making dives into the water
from wave height, which suggests that it was this species. On
my pelagic trip off the coast of Guatemala on 11th May, we saw
three birds and on my pelagic trip off El Salvador on 2nd July,
we saw 66, including at least 2 which were adults of the subspecies
S. l. Brewsteri, which has a pale crown. There were a number
of birds out at sea and some that were fairly close to the shoreline.
The biggest concentration of birds was found sitting on the
masts of a shrimp vessel, about 64 km (40 miles) off the coast,
just before the Pacific shelf. Monroe mentions a group of about
200 birds that he saw on Los Farallones, which, at the time,
were part of Honduras, but are now part of Nicaragua. He said
that it was apparently a breeding colony, but it has not been
confirmed. Despite all of these observations, Jehl only saw
six birds in total during intensive observations off the Pacific
coast of northern Central America between 10th and 17th April
1973, which suggest that the numbers may vary seasonally or
from one year to the next.
It also seems to be the commonest booby off the Caribbean coast.
Monroe reports them as being the commonest breeding booby on
Little Swan island of Honduras (the other main breeder there
being Red-footed Booby). Large numbers have also been seen on
Cayos Cochinos, though breeding has not been confirmed.
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