Two large all white downy chicks with two adults. Endemic to the Humboldt Current, these boobies breed
on offshore rocks. Formerly one of the most abundant seabirds in the area, the population crashed from an estimated
3,000,000 birds in the mid 20th century to just 200,000 after the 1982-83 El Nino. They have since recovered, but
numbers continue to fluctuate depending on sea temperature. They occasionally hybridize with the Blue-footed Booby
(S. nebouxii) in Northern Peru. The two are similar but Peruvian has grayer feet, a whiter head, more white
mottling on its upperwings, and no white on its back. Canon PowerShot SX50 HS.References:
Carboneras, C., Christie, D.A. & Jutglar, F. (2018). Peruvian Booby (Sula variegata). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/52621 on 30 January 2018).
Peruvian Booby (Sula variegata), In Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, USA. retrieved from Neotropical Birds Online: https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/perboo1
Taylor, S.A., Anderson, D.J., Zavalaga, C.B. & Friesen, V.L. (2012) Evidence for strong assortative mating, limited gene flow, and strong differentiation across the Blue-footed/Peruvian Booby hybrid zone in northern Peru. J. Avian Biol. 43(4): 311–324.