Australasian Gannet

Morus serrator(Gray, GR, 1843)

Native

Order: SULIFORMES
Family: Sulidae
Genus: Morus

Commonness: Very common
Best seen: Year-round

01 · Identification

How to tell it apart

The Australasian gannet, also known as the Australian gannet or tākapu, is a large seabird of the booby and gannet family, Sulidae. Adults are mostly white, with black flight feathers at the wingtips and lining the trailing edge of the wing. The central tail feathers are also black. The head is tinged buff-yellow, with a pearly grey bill edged in dark grey or black, and blue-rimmed eyes. Young birds have mottled plumage in their first year, dark above and light below. The head is an intermediate mottled grey, with a dark bill. The birds gradually acquire more white in subsequent seasons until they reach maturity after five years.

Description · wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

02 · Where

Where to find it

Breeding range: Islets off south-west Australia, Bass Strait and Tasmania, Philip I. (Norfolk group, east of Australia) and North and South Is. (New Zealand)
Non-breeding range: To coasts and large bays of south-west, south and south-east Australia

03 · When