Masked Booby

The masked booby, also called the blue-faced booby, is the largest booby, 75 to 85 cm long. The adult is bright white with black wings and tail, a dark face mask, a long pointed yellowish bill and a long neck. The sexes look alike. It ranges across tropical oceans except in the eastern Atlantic and eastern Pacific, where the Nazca booby, once counted as a subspecies, replaces it (Wikipedia, general species account).

It nests in colonies, generally on islands and atolls far from the mainland and close to deep water. The female lays two chalky white eggs in a shallow depression on bare flat ground, and the second chick usually does not survive, killed by its elder sibling. It is a spectacular plunge diver taking mainly flying fish. The 2012 National Red List gives no status under this name.