Yes, they really are that blue. The feet, I mean. Of the boobies. Of the blue-footed boobies (Sula nebouxii), anyway, not to be confused with the red-footed boobies (S. sula) or the Nazca boobies (Sula dactylatra).
Before visiting the Galapagos Islands, where these three species of sea birds are endemic to the region, I would have insisted that this shade of blue doesn’t exist in nature. I was instantly awe-struck by their feet alone.
The next dose of awe came with observing that the birds were completely unfazed by our presence, even when we could have reached out and touched their sparse nests from the walking trails.
Feeling the boobies’ vulnerability more than they did themselves, I was glad that all visitors to Galapagos National Park are required to have local guides.
The Courtship Dance
The true awe fireworks came with the boobie courtship dance. Here’s how it rolls: the male finds a little twig or pebble to give to the female.
He then struts around her with high steps, wings forward, and tilting his head back. Next, he “sky-points” by raising one foot at a time, extending his wings, raising his head, and vocalizing.
And then it’s just more variations of lifting his magnificent blue feet into the air. The vibrancy of the blue signals the bird’s (both the male’s and female’s) degree of health and reproductive vitality. The bluer the feet, the hotter the mate.
My favorite part of the dance is the “mirroring.” If the female is into the male dancing in front of her, she will mimic his moves, showing off her own blue feet.
“Look at my feet!” he says.
“And look at MY feet!” she says.
Back and forth, back and forth, a tale as old as time. Here’s a small taste of the action before I had to scurry along to keep up with the group:
The Science Behind Our Awe
It’s taken me a while to write this post because I had to figure out why my family and I were all so deeply moved by the blue-footed boobies. It turns out there is a growing body of research behind the power of awe and its positive impacts on our physical, mental, and social well-being.
Dacher Keltner‘s book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, shed some light on our experience. I wasn’t surprised that nature is on Keltner’s list of sources of awe across cultures. Nature has consistently been the great unifier on our family vacations, with everyone’s different personalities and interests always finding something to be awed by in our encounters with the natural world.
But something else was at play in addition to our “just” being in nature. Keltner offers the term “collective effervescence,” borrowed from French sociologist Émile Durkheim’s analysis of the emotional core of religion. Keltner describes collective effervescence this way:
…we feel like we are buzzing and crackling with some life force that merges people into a collective self, a tribe, an oceanic “we.”
He explains that gatherings at ceremonies, musical performances, sports, dances, and church rituals “shift the rhythms of our bodies to a shared biological rhythm, breaking down that most basic barrier between self and other, the idea that we are physically separated by the boundaries of our skin.”
The blue-footed boobies dance rendered all of us speechless, thoroughly mesmerized by the ritual unfolding before our eyes. Since the birds seemed so comfortable with our presence, we felt like privileged witnesses invited to the engagement party.
I have no way of knowing if the biological rhythms of our bodies synced up, but I do know that my tribe felt more connected as a result of witnessing that ceremony. Collective effervescence.
The Final Blue-Footed Boobie Encounter That Took The Awe Prize
We had learned to keep a lookout for boobies flying at breakneck speed directly toward the ocean to feed. They can reach 60 mph by the time they hit the water with their beaks exactly perpendicular to the surface. It’s like watching a falling star blast into the sea. We wondered what happened once they disappeared from our view.
On our final day’s snorkeling excursion, my husband, two sons, daughter-in-law, and I were in a loose circle at the surface. All of a sudden, something splashed. I heard someone yell, “Boobie!” I looked down and saw the bird swimming straight up towards me up from the depths. I swear we were staring into each others’ eyes.
I still remember that moment distinctly. My heart raced. I buzzed and crackled with life force — the same life force as the boobie.
Afterwards, everyone confirmed they felt the same magic. My daugher-in-law even affirmed, “It locked eyes with you!”
To my delight, my son Cody got some GoPro footage of our collective effervescence experience. It’s a short clip, so pay attention (mindfulness practice!). When the boobie reaches the surface, I am the person a few feet away. If you look closely, you can see the blue feet paddling in front of my body.
Did you hear the collective effervescence in all of our voices? Edited out of the video was one of my guys’ authentic awe exclamation of “Holy shit!”
How to Access More Awe In Your Life
The good news is that you don’t need to fly to the ends of the earth to experience everyday wonder and awe. And you don’t need to be with other people.
Keltner says we can intentionally access daily awe in what he calls the eight wonders of life, which include: 1) strength, courage, and kindness of others; 2) collective movement in actions like dance and sports; 3) nature (my personal favorite!); 4) music; 5) art and visual design; 6) mystical encounters; 7) encountering life and death; and 9) big ideas or epiphanies.
Read AWE for the research and compelling stories behind Keltner’s research. My guess is you’ll be as inspired as I am to continue to access awe on a regular basis, whether that’s through travel, a walk in the woods, a music performance, or any of the eight wonders of life.
As icing on the cake, the book even helped my marriage by explaining my highly rational husband’s emotional connection to soccer matches — the closest to a church revival that he will ever come.
Learn more about blue-footed boobies HERE. And if you didn’t catch our awe-inspiring encounters with the Galapagos sea lions, you can do that HERE.
I’d love to hear about YOUR awe experiences. Please share in the comments!
