Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra)
About the Masked Booby
The masked booby (Sula dactylatra), also called the masked gannet or the blue-faced booby, is a large seabird of the booby and gannet family, Sulidae. First described by the French naturalist René-Primevère Lesson in 1831, the masked booby is one of six species of booby in the genus Sula. It has a typical sulid body shape, with a long pointed yellowish bill, long neck, aerodynamic body, long slender wings and pointed tail. The adult is bright white with black wings, a black tail and a dark face mask; at 75–85 cm (30–33 in) long, it is the largest species of booby. The sexes have similar plumage. This species ranges across tropical oceans, except in the eastern Atlantic and eastern Pacific. In the latter, it is replaced by the Nazca booby (Sula granti), which was formerly regarded as a subspecies of masked booby.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 33 recordings for this species: 2 CC BY-NC-SA. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in Australia, Brazil, France, Mexico in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Other birds you can hear here
- American Golden PloverPluvialis dominicarecording
- Baird's SandpiperCalidris bairdiirecording
- BananaquitCoereba flaveolarecording
- Barn SwallowHirundo rusticarecording
- Black-bellied Whistling DuckDendrocygna autumnalisrecording
- Black-browed AlbatrossThalassarche melanophrisrecording
These are the birds recorded alongside it, not close relatives — the site holds no other member of its genus or family yet.