Whilst photographing gulls at Jizan
fish market, Phil saw a Brown Booby Sula leucogaster flying in and
alerted me to its presence. The bird had been seen the day before at the fish
harbor, but this time was much closer, flying around and occasionally over the
fish market. It perched on the roof of the market at one stage and remained
there until a collection of fish waste was thrown out and all gulls and the
Booby flew down to eat the scraps. As the Brown Booby was at least twice the
size of any gull present it took the largest flatfish and after eating it flew
off in the direction of the harbour. The close fly past allowed a number of
photographs to be taken of the bird that are not easy to see and photograph
from the mainland. Brown Booby is an uncommon resident of the Red Sea, where it
mainly occurs offshore. They breed on the Farasan Islands as well as other
islands in the Red Sea and wander north to the Gulf of Akaba in winter. S.
l. plotus is the subspecies we get in Saudi Arabia and it occurs from the Red
Sea and tropical Indian Ocean east to northern Australia and the central
Pacific Ocean. The race plotus is the largest and has a blackish head
and neck almost concolorous with rest of upperpart. Its iris is grey to
yellowish grey with narrower pale yellow outer ring. The bill is yellowish horn
to pale horn with bluish or greyish cast, facial skin and gular pouch bluish
grey to blue, legs pale greenish yellow. The female has an ivory or pale horn coloured
bill, slightly tinged either yellowish or pale greenish. The facial and gular
skin are pale greenish yellow, with the legs coloured like the facial skin or
slightly more greenish. Birds are strictly marine, feeding mostly in inshore
waters. They breed mainly on bare, rocky islands or coral atolls.
