Brown Booby

Brown Booby
This species is defined as a Review Species . Please submit your records of this species via our record submission page .

Scientific Name: Sula leucogaster

Malay Name: Angsa-Laut Biasa

Chinese Name: 褐鲣鸟

Range: Found from tropical and subtropical Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and wanders widely outside breeding seasons to Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia

Taxonomy: Polytypic. Subspecies are: leucogaster, plotus.

Local Subspecies: plotus

Size: 73-83 cm

Identification: Adult has distinctive dark chocolate-brown plumage with contrasting white lower breast to vent and mostly white underwing-coverts. Female is slight larger than male. Juvenile has somewhat paler brown plumage and washed dusky-brownish lower breast.

Similar looking species: Red-footed Booby, Masked Booby

Habitat: Open seas and sometimes coastal waters.

Behaviour/Ecology: More regularly sighted over shallow inshore waters than other Booby species.

Local Status: Very rare visitor

Conservation Status: Least Concern (BirdLife International 2018)

Featured articles:

Featured reports: Jan 2025

Past records in our database:

Showing only accepted records. Note that records currently under review are also not displayed, and the list may not be a full list of records of this species in Singapore. For more details, check the database here.

Brown Booby at Dampier Peninsula, Kimberley, Western Australia. Photo Credit: Eric Tan
Subadult Brown Booby at Straits of Johor. Photo credits: See Toh Yew Wai
Subadult Brown Booby at Straits of Johor. Photo credits: See Toh Yew Wai
Subadult Brown Booby at Straits of Johor. Photo credits: See Toh Yew Wai
Brown Booby at Bonin Islands, Japan. Photo credit: Keita Sin
Brown Booby at Dampier Peninsula, Kimberley, Western Australia. Photo Credit: Eric Tan
External Links:

Conservation Status: IUCN Red List Page

Sound Recordings: xeno-canto Link

Wikipedia Entry: Wikipedia Link

eBird Species page: eBird (Brown Booby)

References:

BirdLife International. (2018). Sula leucogaster. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22696698A132590197.en. Accessed on 1 January 2023

Robson, C. (2014). Field guide to the birds of South-East Asia (Second Edition). Bloomsbury Publishing, London.

RECOMMENDED CITATION

Bird Society of Singapore. (n.d.). Brown Booby. Retrieved on June 17, 2025 from https://singaporebirds.com/species/brown-booby.

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