The Story
These two Brown Boobies (Sula leucogaster) rested together on sunlit black rock at Isla Terrón de Azúcar, a small island off Capurganá in Chocó, Colombia. I photographed them from a fishing boat in rough water. Brown Boobies breed on islands and coasts across the tropical Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, nest only on the ground, and roost on solid objects rather than on the water. Males have a blue ring of skin around the eye and females a yellow one.
I made this frame with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11, at 1/3000 sec, f/11, ISO 6400, −0.5 EV. IUCN lists the Brown Booby as Least Concern, but more and more of its nests are now built with marine debris, much of it plastic.
©2025 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) belongs to the family Sulidae (Boobies and Gannets) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2018), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List