Red-footed Booby

How to find it

The reliable place to meet this bird is its breeding colony on Isla del Coco. Visitors go on multi-day liveaboard boat trips from Puntarenas, and the crossing takes roughly 32 to 36 hours. A birding-focused expedition includes walks on the island, a search for the island's endemic birds and seabird watching at sea during the crossing. On a trip we build, the crossing itself is part of the search, since you may see the Red-footed Booby from the boat. Do not count on one from the mainland shore: sightings near the coast are rarely recorded and are linked to storms at sea.

How to recognise it

Adults always have red feet and legs, whatever their plumage. The red of an adult's feet is intense, and it is the best mark to hold on to. The bill and throat pouch are brightly coloured too. It is the smallest booby, about 70 cm long.

Light-morph adults are white with black flight feathers and a black patch under the shoulder. The white morph has a yellowish head. The dark morph is uniformly grey-brown, and about 99% of the Isla del Coco colony is dark morph.

A white-tailed form is also known in the Caribbean, and the Caribbean dark form has a white rump and tail, unlike the plain Pacific birds.

Juveniles are dull brown, sometimes with a darker chest band. Unlike the Brown Booby, the head and neck are never darker than the body.

What it sounds like

Recording: qgroom, CC0 1.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The Red-footed Booby nests on a small platform of sticks high in a tree, usually near the coast or on island ridges. At Isla del Coco it usually lays 2 eggs.

At sea it eats mostly fish and squid, and it may travel hundreds of kilometres from land to feed. Birds seen far offshore can therefore be a long way from their nests. It breeds in colonies, especially on islands.

Where it lives

Across its range this is mostly an open-ocean bird, the most pelagic of the boobies, breeding in colonies on coasts, especially on islands.

In Costa Rica the breeding birds live on Isla del Coco, a remote Pacific island. They nest mostly on the main island, with smaller breeding groups on Manuelita islet. Small numbers probably occur regularly far out at sea off both coasts. Near the shore the species is unlikely, except perhaps after storms.

When to see it

On Isla del Coco the booby breeds all year, with a possible peak from April to July. Numbers there change with the season. Another account gives March to October for the breeding season around the island, but it covers several seabirds, so treat those dates with caution.

Similar birds

The white morph with a black tail can be mistaken for the Nazca Booby or Masked Booby, so check the red feet and smaller size. Dark-morph adults and juveniles can look like young Cocos Boobies. The Red-footed has darker underwing coverts, and some have fully dark underwings. Most juveniles show a pale edge on the uppertail coverts, while the Cocos Booby's are solid dark. A few young Cocos Boobies have bright pink legs, but none have the intense red of an adult Red-footed.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican list marks it as a resident (R), breeding at Isla del Coco, and IUCN lists it as Least Concern, though the world population is falling.