Photo: Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild / Ernst Hartert (Public domain) via Wikimedia Commons

Red-footed booby

The red-footed booby is the most numerous booby in Galápagos and, by a strange inversion, the one you are least likely to see. It nests on the outlying islands, partly feeds at night, and skips the central trails where the other boobies perform. If it makes your list, the plan is Genovesa, and this page tells you why.

Where to see them

Genovesa hosts the largest red-footed booby colony in the archipelago and one of the largest in the world; the global species population is far larger than most visitors assume, with BirdLife/IUCN estimating roughly 1.4 million mature individuals worldwide (2002 estimate, trend decreasing). Darwin Bay and the climb up Prince Philip Steps both pass nesting trees. The only other reliable colony is Punta Pitt on San Cristóbal, with occasional birds reported near Floreana and North Seymour. If your itinerary misses the far islands, this is one bird you may have to let go.

Why they are hard to find

Two habits keep them away from the crowds. First, they nest in trees and bushes, the only booby that does, so there is no ground colony in plain view. Second, they are semi-nocturnal and spend part of the night feeding in open water at the edge of the archipelago, which pushes them toward those remote islands in the first place.

What one looks like

This is the smallest of the three boobies, up to 77 cm tall against 90 cm for the blue-footed, with a wingspan reaching 145 cm. The feet are the famous red, the bill a pale blue, and the plumage brown in roughly 95 percent of birds. The red in the legs comes from carotenoids in their seafood, the same pigment logic that colors a flamingo.

A demanding commute

Red-footed boobies fly up to 90 miles in a single foraging trip, which is one reason they need outlying colonies. Their nostrils close completely so they can hit the water from height without a lungful of sea, and they live past 20 years. One quirk from the trail: for all that long-distance skill, they take off badly in still air and wait for a breeze.

The slowest breeding cycle of the three

A pair raises one egg roughly every 15 months. Incubation takes around 45 days, and nesting activity runs from February to September depending on the island. Do not expect chicks everywhere at once; colonies on different islands are staggered.

Punta Pitt, the three-booby island

Punta Pitt on San Cristóbal is the only site in Galápagos where all three booby species nest side by side, alongside two frigatebird species. The trail climbs a tuff cone for about two hours, and it is the single best answer to “can I compare all the boobies in one morning?”

If the foot color race interests you, the blue-footed booby is its showiest contestant and the Nazca booby runs the grimmest sibling rivalry in the archipelago. For the rest of the bird cast, see our Galápagos birds guide and the wildlife calendar.

Last verified: September 2026