Red-Footed Booby balancing on ship rail

 Whilst sailing down the coast of Chile, we saw lots of boobies. Boobies are seabirds and are related to gannets. During our cruise down the west coast of South America, in the Pacific Ocean, we saw Red- footed , Nazca , Peruvian , Masked and Blue-footed boobies. See more on Wikipedia.

Whilst sailing between Iquique and Coquimbo, off the coast of Chile, a Red- footed booby landed on the bow railing of the ship. There was a strong wind and the ship was pitching quite a lot. The bird had difficulty keeping its balance on the smooth railing, and was almost doing a dance in its attempts to stop sliding. When it did get its balance, it tried to preen itself.

It was oblivious to the large human audience.

See more on the Red-Footed Booby on Wikipedia  and on allaboutbirds .