I Love You with All My Boobies Christmas Card

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Blue-footed boobies make raucous or polysyllabic grunts or shouts and thin whistling noises. The males of the species have been known to throw up their heads and whistle at a passing, flying female. These ritual displays are also a form of communication.

Velando, Alberto (2002). "Experimental manipulation of maternal effort produces differential effects in sons and daughters: implications for adaptive sex ratios in the Blue-footed Booby". Behavioral Ecology. 13 (4): 443–449. doi: 10.1093/beheco/13.4.443. Osorno, Jose Luis; Drummond, Hugh (1995). "The function of hatching asynchrony in the Blue-footed Booby". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 37 (4): 265–273. doi: 10.1007/bf00177406. S2CID 23498574. The blue-footed booby ( Sula nebouxii) is a marine bird native to subtropical and tropical regions of the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is one of six species of the genus Sula – known as boobies. It is easily recognizable by its distinctive bright blue feet, which is a sexually selected trait and a product of their diet. Males display their feet in an elaborate mating ritual by lifting them up and down while strutting before the female. The female is slightly larger than the male and can measure up to 90cm (35in) long with a wingspan up to 1.5m (5ft). [2] The blue color of the blue-footed booby's webbed feet comes from structures of aligned collagens in the skin modified by carotenoid pigments obtained from its diet of fresh fish. The collagens are arranged in a manner that makes the skin appear blue. The underlying color is a "flat, purplish blue". That color is modified by carotenoids to aquamarine in healthy birds. Carotenoids also act as antioxidants and stimulants for the blue-footed booby's immune function, suggesting that carotenoid pigmentation is an indicator of an individual's immunological state. [17] [18] Blue feet also indicate the current health condition of a booby. Boobies that were experimentally food-deprived for 48 hours experienced a decrease in foot brightness due to a reduction in the amount of lipids and lipoproteins that are used to absorb and transport carotenoids. Thus, the feet are rapid and honest indicators of a booby's current level of nourishment. [17] As blue feet are signals that reliably indicate the immunological and health condition of a booby, coloration is favored through sexual selection. Blue-footed Booby, Sula nebouxii". MarineBio. Archived from the original on December 20, 2012 . Retrieved December 21, 2012.

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That's right, you heard me — the hottest new Christmas trend, according to The Sun, is the "reindeer boob." Described as a "bold take" on the ugly sweater trend, reindeer boob entails cutting a hole in your sweater to allow for the flaunting of a boob of your choice and then putting googly eyes, antlers, and a red nose on said boob so it resembles a reindeer. Hey, why not? a b Todd, W. E. Clyde (1948). "A new booby and a new Ibis from South America". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 61: 49. Zavalaga, Carlos B.; Benvenuti, Silvano; Dall'Antonia, Luigi; Emslie, Steven D. (2007). "Diving behavior of Blue-footed Boobies Sula nebouxii in northern Peru in relation to sex, body size and prey type". Marine Ecology Progress Series. 336: 291–303. doi: 10.3354/meps336291. Osorio-Beristain, Marcela; Drummond, Hugh (1993). "Natal dispersal and deferred breeding in the Blue-Footed Booby" (PDF). The Auk. 110 (2).

a b Díaz, Hernández; José Alfredo; Erika Nathalia Salazar Gómez. "Blue-footed Booby ( Sula nebouxii)". Neotropical Birds Online . Retrieved 9 December 2012. a b c d Velando, Alberto; Beamonte-Barrientos, Rene; Torres, Roxana (2006). "Pigment-based skin colour in the Blue-footed Booby: an honest signal of current condition used by females to adjust reproductive investment". Oecologia. 149 (3): 535–542. doi: 10.1007/s00442-006-0457-5. PMID 16821015. S2CID 18852190. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2016). "Hamerkop, Shoebill, pelicans, boobies & cormorants". World Bird List Version 6.3. International Ornithologists' Union . Retrieved 31 July 2016. Anderson, David J. (1989). "Differential responses of boobies and other seabirds in the Galápagos to the 1986–87 El Nino- Southern Oscillation event". Marine Ecology Progress Series. 52: 209–216. doi: 10.3354/meps052209.Loughweed, Lynn W. (1999). "Parent Blue-footed Boobies suppress siblicidal behavior of offspring". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 45 (1): 11–18. doi: 10.1007/s002650050535. S2CID 21985621. Also, if you hit the drop-down in the top-left you can opt for the equally wonderful Booty Christmas instead, and replace the naked T's with naked A's. a b Drummond, Hugh; Chavelas, Cecilia Garcia (1989). "Food shortage influences sibling aggression in the Blue-footed Booby". Animal Behaviour. 37: 806–819. doi: 10.1016/0003-3472(89)90065-1. S2CID 53165189.

Blue Footed Boobies always seem to garner a snigger when people hear the name. It is thought their name derives from “bobo”, a Spanish slang term for stupid- a reference to their clumsy way of walking and how easily the birds could be captured by 18th century Spanish sailors. They often accompany sea faring vessels and have very little fear of humans. Schoolboy humor aside, I could not wait to actually see one of these birds that I had only heard about. Drummond, Hugh; Rodriguez, Cristina; Schwabl, Hubert (2008). "Do mothers regulate facultative and obligate siblicide by differentially provisioning eggs with hormones?". Journal of Avian Biology. 39 (2): 139–143. doi: 10.1111/j.0908-8857.2008.04365.x.Its closest relative is the Peruvian booby. The two species likely split from each other recently due to their shared ecological and biological characteristics. [10] A 2011 study of multiple genes calculated the two species diverged between 1.1 and 0.8 million years ago. [11] Since the blue-footed booby preys on fish by diving headlong into the water, its nostrils are permanently closed, and it has to breathe through the corners of its mouth. Its most notable characteristic is its blue-colored feet, which can range in color from a pale turquoise to a deep aquamarine. Males and younger birds have lighter feet than females. [2] Its blue feet play a key role in courtship rituals and breeding, with the male visually displaying his feet to attract mates during the breeding season. Torres, Roxana; Velando, Alberto (2007). "Male reproductive senescence: the price of immune-induced oxidative damage on sexual attractiveness in the blue-footed booby". Journal of Animal Ecology. 76 (6): 1161–1168. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2007.01282.x. PMID 17922712. Mates can recognize each other by their calls. Although calls differed between sexes, unique individual signatures were present. Both males and females can discriminate the calls of their mates from others. [39] Population decline [ edit ] Blue-footed Booby Population Analysis". Galapagos Conservancy. Archived from the original on October 22, 2017 . Retrieved January 26, 2016.