The brown booby can be seen regularly in St. Martin, often fishing in the near shore waters of our bays. The masked booby, however, is almost unknown on the island. Recorded sightings are relatively rare, and the species itself is much less common than the brown booby. Although the total population is unknown, it may be less than 1/20th of the population of brown boobies. Here are a few photos of masked boobies nesting on Dog Island. The estimated breeding population there is approximately 30 pairs, but I believe we saw more than that on our visit.
Although you can see two eggs in one of the photos below, apparently this bird will raise only one chick per year. The first to hatch will push the second out of the nest, and the parents will abandon it. Although that may sound like bad parenting, presumably they have better success putting all their effort (and regurgitated fish) into one chick.
