Sula variegata
Silhouette: Jon Hill (Photo by Benjamint444: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blue-footed-booby.jpg) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The Peruvian booby (Sula variegata) is an endemic bird of the Peruvian current, and an important predator of the marine community to which it belongs. Its distribution is much less widespread than other closely related booby species. It is the most abundant seabird species that inhabits the Peruvian coast and the second most important guano-producing seabird. During the mid-twentieth century, the Peruvian booby population reached 3 million birds.
The Peruvian booby has brown upperparts and a white head and underparts. There is noticeable white mottling on the upper side of the wings. Their wing-coverts are tipped white, creating a scale-like pattern. They have a long, pointed, grey bill and grey webbed feet. This differentiates them from characteristic coloring of the blue-footed and red-footed boobies.
Female boobies tend to be larger than their male counterparts: their bodies an average of 19% heavier, and their wings 4% larger. The Peruvian booby is within the genus Sula. It shares this genus with other boobies, including the blue-footed booby, the red-footed booby, the brown booby, the masked booby, and the Nazca booby.
There are no subspecies of... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Machalilla National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lima | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 2 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amaru | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 2 | Parque de las Leyendas | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 3 | Marino Valdivia Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Peruvian Booby sighting in Machalilla National Park on a given day, based on 53 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 117th most-seen of the 248 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Peruvian Booby in Machalilla National Park on a given day, against under 5% in September to May, the lowest months. That is one of Machalilla National Park's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain against 140 mm in February.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Peruvian Booby sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Machalilla National Park, in our data
Machalilla National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Peruvian Booby sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Sula
The closest relatives of the Peruvian Booby that you can see in Machalilla National Park (genus Sula, Typical Boobies) are Blue-footed Booby (about 40%), Nazca Booby (about 30%) and Red-footed Booby (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Peruvian Booby is recorded against all the birds logged in Machalilla National Park (53 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
