Kauaʻi record · kba_bird_red_footed_booby
Red-footed Booby
Sula sula
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About Red-footed Booby
Red-footed Booby (Sula sula) is recorded as a breeding visitor on Kauaʻi in the Bishop Museum's 2017 island checklist. This is a documented island occurrence, not a claim of an individual sighting in 2026.
Kauaʻi evidence
Bishop Museum island checklist (version 2, 2017) lists Kauaʻi status B: breeding visitor. See original island table. The record includes Kauaʻi-specific or clearly defined regional evidence appropriate to its stated occurrence status.
Occurrence evidence
bishop_island_checklist_2017
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Sula sula
- Common names
- Red-footed Booby
- Family
- Sulidae
- Order
- Suliformes
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Kauaʻi documented: breeding visitor (2017 island checklist)
- Origin
- Indigenous
- Conservation status
- Not assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-09-13
- Evidence limits
- Island occurrence supported by the 2017 checklist; abundance and current year presence are not established here
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Coastal habitat · Shrublands
- Food and resource needs
- Plunge dives from roughly 4-8 meters
- Reproduction
- Suitable nesting or roosting sites, seasonal food, and protection from disturbance and predators.
- Shelter
- Shelter and structure within coastal habitat, shrublands.
Threats and conservation
- Threats
- Rats and feral cats at colonies, invasive insects/plants altering vegetation, nesting-shrub availability, disturbance, and marine prey/fishing relationships
- Conservation actions
- Maintain Kilauea Point refuge habitat, nesting vegetation, colony monitoring, predator prevention, and marine feeding-flock/predatory-fish context
- Monitoring
- Track occurrence, abundance, habitat condition, breeding or seasonal use, and significant threats.
- Data gaps
- Update island status with dated contemporary records · Specific Kauaʻi habitat and abundance need local evidence
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Year Round Kilauea Colony With 2019 Population Benchmark
- Seasonal description
- Red-footed Booby (Sula sula) is recorded as a breeding visitor on Kauaʻi in the Bishop Museum's 2017 island checklist. This is a documented island occurrence, not a claim of an individual sighting in 2026.
Sources and further reading
- https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/wildlife/birds/a-red-footed-booby/
- https://kauaiseabirdproject.org/red-footed-booby/
- https://www.usgs.gov/data/population-estimates-selected-breeding-seabirds-kilauea-point-national-wildlife-refuge-kauai
- https://www.fws.gov/refuge/kilauea-point
- https://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/birds/rlp-monograph/SEHIlist.htm