Foraging areas of breeding blue-footed boobies Sula nebouxii in northern Peru, as determined by direction recorders

The association between the distribution of blue-footed boobies Sula nebouxii (BFB) and marine productivity around their breeding grounds is unclear. In Peru, they breed in a region seasonally influenced by the cold, nutrient rich Humboldt Current, and by warm, nutrient poor oceanic waters. The foraging range of BFB in Peru is unknown, although some evidence suggest that they may feed in warm offshore waters. During the austral winter 2002 and summer 2003, we tracked 26 BFBs breeding on Isla Lobos de Tierra, Peru (located approximately 15 km west of the mainland), during 59 feeding trips using small direction recorders to determine their marine habitat use. BFBs preferentially moved to the east of the island and foraged over the continental shelf in cold water masses where marine productivity and the abundance of the main prey, the Peruvian anchovy Engraulis ringens, are usually higher than in other areas. Overall, the median maximum foraging distance from the colony was 39 km (range 3-109 km), with 90% of all trips located within 30 km from the mainland, and enclosed in an area of 13,113 km. These results reveal that BFBs exploit the productive waters of the Peruvian Coastal Upwelling System, rather than open oceanic waters as previously suggested. BFBs travelled a greater distance, dispersed in a broader area, and visited more offshore waters during the winter 2002, than during the summer 2003, following the typical seasonal horizontal dispersion of the Peruvian anchovy.