Red-footed Booby  Sula sula

Texas Coastal / Offshore Status: Accidental. There are 12 documented records for the state, all from coastal / offshore areas as of 09/2024.

Gulf of Mexico Status: Casual in Florida especially Dry Tortugas.  

Range: Widespread in the Caribbean where it breeds mostly on remote islands.

Never Seen on Texas Pelagic trip. Accidental in Texas.
* Texas Review Species, requiring written or photographic documentation to TBRC.
(1) TOS Handbook of Texas Birds; by Mark W. Lockwood and Brush Freeman (2005)

Seasonal Occurrence Graph

Texas Pelagics Sightings Distribution 

Map 1) The top Google live map shows the geographic distribution of Red-footed Booby found in Offshore Texas from lat-long data I’ve captured from 35 years of Texas Pelagics. It also shows the exact (or in a few cases approximate) location of the 12 TBRC accepted records and other eBird Records with good photo documentation.
Click on the box in the upper left of the map to view the map legend.
Click on each sighting symbol and the data label will appear showing the time, date and the number of birds seen.
Click on the symbol on the top right of the map to view a larger map.

The next two map images are copied from eBird.

Map 2) This map is zoomed into Texas and Louisiana to show individual locations.

Map 3) The bottom map is zoomed out to show the GOM, the northern Caribbean Sea and the adjacent western tropical Atlantic ocean. 

Eleventh Texas Record, 29-Sept-2023, Aboard the MV Fling on a 48-hour Texas Pelagic Trip, seen 110 miles southeast of Freeport offshore Brazoria County. All photos copyrighted by Garett Hodne 2023 unless otherwise noted.

Same Red-footed Booby chasing a Brown Booby. Photo Copyright by Ryan Rodriguez, 2023-09-28

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