Red-Footed and Out of Place

Chasing Lifers

Nov 23

A Red-footed Booby showed up late Tuesday afternoon, November 18th — a bird that absolutely should not be hanging out in Corpus Christi Bay. It was first spotted flying over the Texas State Aquarium and near the barge dock next to the Art Museum of South Texas. I couldn’t make it over before dark, but a few folks stayed with it until nightfall and dropped a pin where it went to sleep. After missing the Fork-tailed Flycatcher last week by assuming 7:30am was “early enough,” I wasn’t making that mistake twice.

So I set my alarm for way too early and planned to be on the barge dock by 6:15am. With the low light we were expecting, I had to leave my RF 100-500 f/4.5-7.1L in the bag — it’s a fantastic lens, but not fast enough for dawn. Instead, I prepped my EF 400mm f/2.8L and 2x Extender, which I paired with the Canon R7. That setup gave me the reach and speed I needed.

I made it out before the sky started changing, and it was me and two others scanning the rocks where the bird had roosted. Nothing. After several minutes, that sinking feeling started creeping in… and then Dave Grise, who was standing right next to me, simply said, “It’s on the channel marker.”

And sure enough, it was — about 1,200 feet away. But distance or not, we had it.

With the 400mm and 2x Extender on the R7, I was working with a field of view equivalent to roughly a 1,300mm lens. In some cases I even used 4K Crop mode, pushing things to around a 2,300mm equivalent. At that length, every little shake becomes exaggerated, but between lens IS, in-body stabilization, and video stabilization in post, most of the movement was cleaned up. It’s one of the few times where the technical challenge was almost as interesting as the bird.

About the Bird

Red-footed Boobies are equatorial oceanic birds. They belong thousands of miles from here, not casually perched on a marker in our bay. For one to end up in Nueces County means it took a serious wrong turn somewhere out over the Gulf.

I spent parts of three days watching it, getting a few decent shots while it loafed on the rocks, and some better looks after heading over the Harbor Bridge to the Texas State Aquarium — another spot it seemed to favor.

In person, it’s a surprisingly pretty, slightly goofy bird. At long distance, when it’s tucked in, it could easily be mistaken for a gull. But once it stands up and looks around, the baby-blue bill and bright red feet are unmistakable. Even the white feathers have subtle variation — some creamy, some with a cooler, bluish tint. The feathering on the head makes it look like it’s wearing a little helmet, which only adds to its charm.

Despite watching it for hours, I only saw it fly once or twice. Others reported more flight activity on the second afternoon, but I never saw it feed, and no one else seemed to either. That part is a little concerning, though it did disappear for long stretches, so it’s possible it was slipping out into the bay to hunt when no one was around. While editing the video, I was able to make some more observations that I hadn’t noticed while sitting there in person. It did seem to keep its right foot up more frequently than not, perhaps it could have an injury but that isn’t definitive.

Final Thoughts

This was an unexpected and genuinely exciting find for Nueces County and especially for those of us who bird around Corpus Christi Bay. A Red-footed Booby is the kind of sighting you don’t plan for — it just drops into your world and gives you a handful of chances to appreciate how wild and unpredictable birding can be.