White-tailed brown morph Red-footed Booby at Aldabra

Martin van Rooyen, Jake Letori and Maria Bielsa have reported a white-tailed brown morph Red-footed Booby Sula sula at Aldabra. The bird was seen while conducting a frigatebird census at Grande Poche near Main Channel on 26 February 2020. The first reference to the presence of this morph at Aldabra was of "three or four" sightings in a 1974 paper (Diamond, A.W., 1974. The Red-footed Booby at Aldabra. Ardea 62). Michael Betts, Research Officer at Aldabra 1999-2000 and a current member of SBRC also reported very small numbers present and he suspected breeding.

In the Indian Ocean most colonies are entirely white morph, except at Europa (98.5% white-tailed brown morph, 1.5% white morph) and Tromelin (c. one-third white-tailed brown, two-thirds white). This suggests that colonies do not constitute one gene pool but are isolated from each other. However, in recent years, white-tailed brown morphs have also begun to breed at  Farquhar, now constituting about 2% of the population.

Breeding at Aldabra remains unproven, but the presence of an adult in bright (breeding?) plumage suggests this may be the case.