A New Breeding Colony of Blue-footed Booby Sula nebouxii at Islote González, Archipelago Islas Desventuradas, Chile

We describe a new disjunct population of Blue-footed Booby Sula nebouxii at Islote González in the Islas Desventuradas archipelago. Though likely much larger, the population size at the time of our survey was a minimum of 16 breeding pairs. On 14–15 December 2020, two pairs of boobies with nestlings and four pairs with empty nests were found. Likely the species is a recent arrival to the archipelago, perhaps during one of the strong El Niño events between 1970 and 2001 (especially 1982/83, when the species was first recorded in Chile). Blue-footed Booby might also nest on different areas at San Félix Island and some smaller islets around the archipelago, where they would have no nesting-site competition from the larger Masked Booby S. dactylatra.