I knew I had this picture somewhere, but couldn't find it filed under "Galapagos" or "birds" or anything, anywhere. Ran across it today in my "to finish" file for An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel. Duh, huh?
I hope you like the photo as much as I do. It's of a Nazca Booby with two eggs. (You don't want to know what Wikipedia says about the two eggs, however.)
The Nazca (Sula granti) was formerly thought to be a subspecies of the Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra), but is now recognized as a separate species.
One of these days, I'll be visiting Canada's Gaspé Peninsula, where I hope to see another seabird of the Sulidae family, the Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus, formerly Sula bassana) on Bonaventure Island. I'm no bird expert, far from it, but I have become more and more interested in them the more I travel.
3 comments:
Aww … cute! I’ve read they commonly lay two eggs within days of each other. One apparently is “insurance” should the other one be destroyed. Also, if they both hatch, the stronger one often kicks the smaller one out of the nest with no objections from mom. That is so harsh! You’re right though, I probably didn’t want to know. :(
No, not the sort of thing you want to know when she's looking all mumsy in the picture.
definitely
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