Present year round in numbers up to 25 pair, masked boobies are usually perched on the sand beaches of Hospital Key near Ft. Jefferson where the chicks are raised over the spring and early summer. Adults may be observed feeding in nearby waters as well.

Sooty Tern


About 80,000 nest annually on Bush Key, the only important breeding colony in the continental U.S. Outside the nesting season, they resort to the high seas and seldom approach mainland shores. Sooties are first heard in late December at night. Their numbers increase gradually until they land and begin nesting in early February. Each female produces one egg, and the male and female alternately incubate it for 29 days. They then care for the chick for 8 to 10 weeks. Their food is primarily fish and squid caught at sea surface, at times 50 miles or more away from the colony. Sooties begin to leave during June and by mid-August the colony is almost
deserted. Extensive bird-banding shows that most adults spend their off -season in the eastern Caribbean, whereas young birds migrate to the eastern tropical Atlantic where they spend up to 5 years aloft off West Africa before they return to the Dry Tortugas.

Brown Noddy


About 4,500 Brown Noddies also breed on Bush Key, placing their bulky nest of seaweed and sticks in the bushes and mangrove trees. They arrive with the Sooty Terns, but tend to stay longer, sometimes as late as October. From band returns, they seem to range much less widely than Sooties, seldom leaving the Gulf-Caribbean region.

Black Noddy
First discovered at the Dry Tortugas in 1960, a few have been found in most years since then. They appear as early as late March and as late as September. Most often they are seen perched on the north coaling dock on Garden Key, or in mangroves on Bush Key. As yet, there is no
evidence that they nest in the area.

Magnificent Frigatebird


Long Key contains the only current nesting colony for the Magnificent Frigatebird in the continental U.S. They first nested in this area in 1988, and may be the same population that nested for 25 years at the Marquesas Keys until driven away by human disturbance. Long Key
contains approximately 100 nests.

Masked Booby
Present year-round in numbers up to about 40. Usually seen perched on buoys or roosting on the smaller islands. Since 1984, a few pairs have nested each winter/spring on Hospital and Middle Keys.

National Park Service and The U.S. Department of Interior