Blue-footed booby’s colors shine on Galápagos

I admit I am obsessed with the blue-footed booby. I saw the turquoise-accented avian for the first time on my recent reporting trip to the Galápagos — the Pacific volcanic islands some 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, and home to many of the world’s blue-footed booby breeding couples.

I get why nearly two centuries ago, Charles Darwin was fascinated by these seabirds and gave them top billing in his theory of evolution. I couldn’t get enough — equally amused at their gangly gait on land (their name comes from the Spanish bobo for “foolish”) while also awed by their precision diving skills at sea. I confess I was equally enamored by their ubiquitous caricatures plastered around Galápagos towns, adorning walls and signposts and all kinds of booby-themed kitsch.