Masked Booby

ID tip

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Masked Booby

One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is April, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Masked Booby

The map shades 85 countries with regular records, and 9 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Recorded as a rare visitor in Eritrea, Hong Kong SAR China, France, Niue, Somalia, Canada, Kuwait, Thailand, Palau.

About the Masked Booby

The masked booby, also called the masked gannet or the blue-faced booby, is a large seabird of the booby and gannet family, Sulidae. First described by the French naturalist René-Primevère Lesson in 1831, the masked booby is one of six species of booby in the genus Sula. It has a typical sulid body shape, with a long pointed yellowish bill, long neck, aerodynamic body, long slender wings and pointed tail. The adult is bright white with black wings, a black tail and a dark face mask; at 75–85 cm (30–33 in) long, it is the largest species of booby. The sexes have similar plumage. This species ranges across tropical oceans, except in the eastern Atlantic and eastern Pacific.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Nazca BoobySula grantiThe species has a yellow iris, orange and pinkish beak, black facial skin in the form of a mask, and grey feet. Red-footed BoobySula sulaThe red-footed booby is the smallest member of the booby and gannet family at about 70 cm (28 in) in length and with a wingspan of up to 152 cm (60 in). Cocos BoobySula brewsteriThe most immediately obvious difference from the related brown booby is the male's whitish face, varying in size by subspecies.

Side by side: Brown Booby vs Masked Booby · Blue-footed Booby vs Masked Booby · Masked Booby vs Red-footed Booby · Masked Booby vs Nazca Booby