A pair of Nazca Boobies frequenting a buoy off Long Beach
El Niño Brings the Boobies to Southern California
A Super El Niño has formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean in 2026. It is the strongest since record-keeping began over 75 years ago. Much discussed in the news for its impact on the weather, El Niños also have profound impacts on animal life. For west coast birders, a strong El Niño can bring warm-water birds that typically reside farther south off the coast of Mexico. And that seems to be happening this year. In small numbers, but numbers bigger than usual, a kind of bird known as “boobies” has settled in to our area.
Boobies are long winged birds that spot fish and squid from the sky and plunge dive after them. They are bigger than the biggest gulls. They are often described as having a “4-pointed star” appearance, on account of their long wings, long beak, and tapered tail. They are more often seen from a boat than land (unless you’re in Hawaii). Six species can be found in American waters. In order of likelihood of being found in L.A., they are: Cocos, Masked, Nazca, Red-footed, Blue-footed, and Brown (never seen in L.A.). Thanks to a crazy past month, I have now seen all five that have been recorded in Los Angeles County.
Red-footed Booby chilling on a pillar in Malibu
The craziness started in mid-September, when word went out that a Red-footed Booby was at Malibu Lagoon. Red-footed Boobies live in tropical waters across the globe. I’d seen them in Hawaii and unexpectedly while camping on the coast in San Luis Obispo. They are only spotted in LA every few years. This bird was found on the beach, and initial reports were that animal rescue had been called. This may be a good thing for a sick or injured bird. But birders in town thought “noooooooo!” as they feared losing the chance to see a nice rarity. The bird flew away, perhaps having gotten wind that the bird catchers were on the way. An hour or so later, someone re-found it along the Pacific Coast Highway east of Malibu. That was about 30 minutes from my house, so I decided to make a run and hope it stayed put long enough for me to get there.
Luckily, it was under the watchful eye of a couple of birders when I drove up. The bird was sitting on a concrete pillar that had probably supported a house that burned in the Palisades Fire in January 2025. The bird was just 30 feet from the highway. Red-footed Boobies come in white and brown versions. This one was brown. It didn’t have the namesake red feet, but none of us complained. It stuck around for 15-20 minutes before it flew off again, flushed by a pair of birders who pulled their car up just where the bird was perched.
Cocos Booby too majestical for the frame in Santa Monica Bay
I added another booby to my LA county list in early October on an LA Birders pelagic trip in Santa Monica Bay. While Santa Monica Bay doesn’t bring pelagic rarities as often as some other places, you never know what you’ll see when you’re out on a boat. This trip left from Redondo Beach, and followed Redondo Canyon out to the shipping lane. Around the mouth of the canyon, an immature Cocos Booby did a fly-by and settled in the water with some gulls. This is the most frequently seen booby species in LA. It’s actually a new species, having been split from Brown Booby in 2024. They range from Baja to Colombia and Ecuador. They didn’t start showing up in California until the 1990s, when they expanded their range north. It was long past time for me to see one of these, and I was delighted that we encountered one on the boat ride. The warm waters have also brought some storm-petrels our way, and I added Least and Ashy Storm-Petrel to my county list.
A rare booby combo
Buoy-assisted Boobies
There was still one more booby species being spotted in the area: Nazca Booby. They are very similar to the Masked Booby, having been split from Masked in 2002. They key distinction is a pinkish tinge to the base of the bill, instead of an all-yellow bill. They are famous for practicing obligate siblicide, a reproductive strategy where an older chick kills and eats a younger chick in every case where two eggs hatch. Their range overlaps with Cocos Booby, though they’re less likely to be seen in California waters. To see the Nazca Boobies (there were up to 4 hanging out off Long Beach), the best bet besides a private charter was a Harbor Breeze Whale Watch tour. I signed up for one on a Saturday morning (groupon discount!), and asked the captain if he’d swing by the buoys to check for boobies. He kindly obliged. We struck out on the red buoy on the way out, but struck gold at the green buoy on the way in. In addition to a pair of adult Nazca Boobies, there was an immature Cocos on the same buoy. A pod of 1,000 common dolphins, some flying fish, and a playful Humpback Whale had all the boat-riders happy.
Before the booby bonanza of the last month, I had seen two booby species in Los Angeles. The first, in 2013, was Blue-footed Booby. They are the rarest of the boobies that have been recorded in California. They breed from Baja to the Galapagos Islands, and have glowing baby blue feet in breeding plumage. They apparently build no nest, but lay eggs on the ground. As the incubating adults poop, a wall of excrement forms around the eggs. There was an unprecedented irruption of them in September 2013, as the birds wandered up the California coast. One made it all the way to British Columbia. As many as 7 were seen on the Playa del Rey breakwater in my 5-mile radius circle. They lingered into December. One hasn’t been seen in LA since.
Blue-footed Booby, Sept. 2013
Masked Booby, Feb. 2020
The other species I had seen was Masked Booby. At the same Playa del Rey jetty, a Masked Booby showed up in February 2020, just before Covid shut the world down. It stayed for 2 weeks. With a world-wide tropical range similar to Red-footed Booby, these are the largest of all the boobies. Despite the irruption of boobies this year, no Masked Boobies have been confirmed in LA.
Least Storm-Petrel (good luck)
