ML66217511

Age and sex

Immature Unknown sex - X

Observation details

For full details see Abbott & Gjerdrum 2014. "Red-footed Booby (Sula sula): New to Nova Scotia and Canada." North American Birds. 68(2): 174-177: "The plumage and soft-part colors suggest that the booby was likely in its first plumage cycle (Howell et al. 2014): dark brown tail with white-tipped central rectrices; grayish brown head, gray-brown mottled neck, and gray-brown breast band; brownish upperwing coverts, scapulars, and back with some white-tipped feathers; and dark-tipped pinkish bill. Immature boobies molt their wing feathers throughout the year in waves, possibly due to limited food resources in tropical waters (Howell 2010). The bird’s primaries appeared to have been molted from innermost through p8, with p9 growing and p10 worn and yet to be shed (Figure 3), which likewise strongly suggests a bird late in its first plumage cycle. It is not clear from photographs whether the bird had initiated its second wave of primary moult, i.e., p1 shedding (Howell, pers. comm.). The photographs and field notes support the record as referring to an immature white-morph Red-footed Booby (Sula sula). Based on the location of the observation, it would seem very likely that the Red-footed Booby was of the nominate subspecies, confined to the Atlantic, rather than one of the Pacific taxa (websteri, rubripes), although distinguishing a first-cycle bird at the level of subspecies is probably not possible."

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot G15

ISO

80

Focal length

6.1 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/2.5

Shutter speed

1/2000 sec

Dimensions

4000 pixels x 3000 pixels

Original file size

1.38 MB