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Taller than mom

McKean Island, a low, treeless outcrop of coral sand in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, is home to many thousands of seabirds. Though once mined for bird guano, the island was never occupied by humans, so the birds aren’t wary of people carrying cameras. When scientists from the Phoenix Islands Protected Area expedition went ashore to survey the bird species on McKean, WHOI biologist Larry Madin could get quite close to this adult masked booby (left) and its fluffy chick.
(Photo by Larry Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)