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Posted by Nick Bonomo on 19:49:12 05/10/12
In Reply to: Re: Red-footed Booby, 2 Black Noddies on Tortugas May 9 posted by Brian Rapoza
Hi Brian,
I debated even posting photos because, as you point out, they are not good at all. This is the trouble with posting poor photos.
We did not take the identification lightly, aware of the difficulty dark boobies can present, specifically here red-foot vs. brown.
I did decide to post the photos primarily because they show one very important field mark, the bird's whitish tail. This field mark alone is diagnostic and is not shown in any plumages of Brown Booby. The photos came out quite dark and grainy (hand-held digiscoped), and the contrast of the whitish tail was obvious in the field. It's the very pale tail that makes me believe this is a subadult dark morph approaching adulthood.
Otherwise, the main features we noted not visible in the photos include an obviously lighter brown color than the several nearby Browns (and there were many in the vicinity), with a tan tinge. When seen in profile, the crown appeared rounded with a slight drop where it met the base of the bill. Underparts were rather uniform brown without the horizontal contrast between breast and belly shown, in varying intensity, on Brown Booby. The photos are indeed dark, out of focus, and grainy, but I prefer to post them than not.
If any more questions feel free to ask,
Nick
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