A Red-footed Booby Catching Airborne Squid

Abstract

Seabirds capture squid in many ways, that mainly involve diving to capture them at the ocean surface or underwater. We present here the first photographic evidence of a seabird, a Red-footed Booby Sula sula, capturing an airborne squid. When a school of squid took flight following disturbance by our boat, a booby flying alongside swooped and approached a flying squid from behind, caught it in the air and ascended quickly. Soon after swallowing the squid, the booby made a plunge-dive and caught another squid that had just landed in the water after a period in flight. Plunge-diving was subsequently repeated over a separate school of squid that had just re-entered the water after flight. Seabirds other than the Red-footed Booby may have frequent opportunities for finding and feeding on airborne squid.