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The votes are in, and The Panda has been named as The World’s Cutest Animal by the competition sponsored by The World Wildlife Fund.  The cute Koala came in second place.

But one of my favorites – the delightful Booby didn’t fare that well, darn it.  I should have voted for it several times!

The Blue-Footed Booby is a tropical seabird that lives on the Galapagos Islands, the Gulf of California, the west coast of Mexico, and along the coasts of Ecuador and Peru.

It has beautiful blue webbed feet and is about the size of a goose. It can live to be more than 17 years old.

Why is this bird called a Booby? Its name comes from the Spanish word bobo which means ‘stupid fellow.’ The Blue Footed Booby is a very tame bird, lacking the fear instinct of other birds. It also appears to be a very clumsy bird on land.

During courtship, the male booby loves to show off his blue feet. He flaunts around his nest area with a high stepping walk and gyrates off the ground, flashing his feet at his intended mate.

The Blue-Footed Booby spends a lot of its time in search of fish. It will glide, with its bill angled down, and can dive from heights of up to 80 feet. When it dives into the water it keeps its wings very close to its body, and it barely makes a splash as it enters the water.

Boobies have also been known to catch flying fish in midair, and they hunt in flocks. The first booby to spot a fish gives a whistle to the rest of the group, which eagerly follows the whistler as it dives into the water to snatch its first fish.

The blue-footed booby is legally protected only in the Galapagos Islands. Estimates indicate there are 40,000 breeding pairs of blue-footed boobies in the world today, and half of them are on the Galapagos Islands.

I truly have to admire this clumsy, yet delightful, bird-brained character who flaunts his feet in his mate’s face!