CreatureData

Brown booby

Sula leucogaster (Boddaert, 1783)

LCLeast Concernbirds

The brown booby (Sula leucogaster) is a species in the family Sulidae, order Suliformes. Recorded adults weigh 1.19 kg to 1.34 kg and live up to 25.4 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Brown booby (Sula leucogaster)
Photo: Danilo da Castro · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the brown booby

Weight
1.19 kg – 1.34 kgsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
25.4 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet
Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
Longest recorded lifespan
30 years
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
marinesrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
42 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
2src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity
3.24 years – 3.5 yearssrc for Age at maturity
Litters or clutches a year
1.13src for Litters or clutches a year
Lifestyle
Aerialsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Partialsrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

Where does the brown booby live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The brown booby is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the brown booby?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The brown booby (Sula leucogaster) is a large seabird in the booby and gannet family Sulidae, of which it is one of the most common and widespread species. It has a pantropical range, which overlaps with that of other booby species. The gregarious brown booby commutes and forages at low height over inshore waters. Flocks plunge-dive to take small fish, especially when these are driven near the surface by their predators. They nest only on the ground, and roost on solid objects rather than the water surface.

From the Wikipedia article “Brown booby” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brown_booby&oldid=1378033704), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the brown booby endangered?

The brown booby is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the brown booby classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderSuliformes
  5. familySulidae
  6. genusSula
  7. SpeciesSula leucogaster (Boddaert, 1783)

Synonyms Pelecanus leucogaster

Other names and names in other languages (67)
  • BoobyEnglish
  • Booby gannetEnglish
  • White-bellied boobyEnglish
  • BruinmalgasAfrikaans
  • أطيش بنيArabic
  • Белокорем рибоядBulgarian
  • Morskoul gellBreton
  • mascarell bruCatalan
  • Lu'aoChamorro
  • terej žlutonohýCzech
  • bwbi brownWelsh
  • Brun SuleDanish
  • WeißbauchtölpelGerman
  • bruna suloEsperanto
  • Bobo caféSpanish
  • Boba marrónSpanish
  • Boba pardaSpanish
  • Bubí PardoSpanish
  • MonjitaSpanish
  • Piquero morenoSpanish
  • Piquero pardoSpanish
  • pruunsuulaEstonian
  • Zanga ilunBasque
  • ruskosuulaFinnish
  • Fou brunFrench
  • Búbaí donnIrish
  • Mascato pardoGalician
  • Boobee dhoneManx
  • סולה לבנת-בטןHebrew
  • barna szulaHungarian
  • Angsa-batu coklatIndonesian
  • BrúnsúlaIcelandic
  • Sula foscaItalian
  • カツオドリJapanese
  • 갈색얼가니새Korean
  • baltapilvis padūkėlisLithuanian
  • brūnā sullaLatvian
  • NgovoMalagasy
  • bruine GentDutch
  • Bubi BrùinPapiamento
  • KuelPalauan
  • głuptak białobrzuchyPolish
  • atobáPortuguese
  • alcatraz-pardoPortuguese
  • atobá-pardoPortuguese
  • Ganso-patola-pardoPortuguese
  • MalvaxiPortuguese
  • Matchia-vagéPortuguese
  • Pato-marinhoPortuguese
  • Corb de mare brunRomanian
  • бурая олушаRussian
  • RuškessuvláNorthern Sami
  • sula hnedáSlovak
  • rjavi strmoglavecSlovenian
  • Smeđa blunaSerbian
  • brunsulaSwedish
  • a'oTahitian
  • นกบู๊บบี้สีน้ำตาลThai
  • Ngutulei melomeloTongan
  • Kara SümsükTurkish
  • kahverengi sümsük kuşuTurkish
  • Бура олушаUkrainian
  • Олуша бураUkrainian
  • сула білочереваUkrainian
  • Chim điên bụng trắngVietnamese
  • 褐鲣鸟Chinese
  • 白腹鰹鳥Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

Relatives of the brown booby

Other species in the same genus Sula.

CompareBrown booby vs Blue-footed boobyBrown booby vs Masked boobyBrown booby vs Red-footed boobyBrown booby vs Peruvian booby

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the brown booby?

An adult brown booby weighs 1.19 kg – 1.34 kg, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the brown booby live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the brown booby for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the brown booby endangered?

The brown booby is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

How long does the brown booby live?

The brown booby has a recorded lifespan of 25.4 years.

What kind of animal is the brown booby?

The brown booby (Sula leucogaster) belongs to the family Sulidae in the order Suliformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Brown booby (Sula leucogaster). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-booby

MLA

“Brown booby (Sula leucogaster).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-booby.

BibTeX
@misc{brown_booby_2026,
  title = {Brown booby (Sula leucogaster)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-booby},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}