Adults: General body plumage white with buff head and black primaries, secondaries and inner tail feathers. Concealed slate-grey throat stripe. Eye, light grey. Bill, blue-grey. Tail, white with black central feathers. Feet, black with yellow-green stripes on toes. Webs, brown.
Immatures: General body plumage irregular mixture of white and grey-brown with dark tail. Above, dusky, mottled white. Below, mainly white, greyish on neck.
Downy Young: Naked, then white-downed.
Other Scientific Names
Sula serrator [Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993)]
Other Names (World)
Australasian Gannet, Gannet, Australian Gannet, Booby, Diver, Solan Goose
Vagrant to Brazil, French Southern Territories, Namibia, South Africa (B).
Breeds coasts of south-eastern Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand; also small colony at Norfolk I. Winters on adjacent waters and up western and eastern coasts of Australia as far as Tropic of Capricorn.
Voice
Display call at nest is a loud repetitive cackling ‘urrah’. Males voice is slightly higher pitched than that of female. Departing call is a cackling ‘erk-erk’. A snort and quach in flight and fights. Young birds grunt and chirp.
Nest
Well built structure, composed of kelp, twigs, grass and other plants, placed on a flat cone-shaped mound of earth and guano.
Eggs (Guide)
1; white; oblong-oval; 78x48 mm. Incubation: 43 – 47 days; by both sexes.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in 93 – 105 days.
Subspecies
Considered to form superspecies with Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) and Cape Gannet (Morus capensis). Sometimes considered a subspecies of Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus). Hybridization with Cape Gannet (Morus capensis) has been recorded.
No subspecies.
Similar Species
Cape Gannet (Morus capensis) which has a fine black streak down the center of the throat and foreneck and generally has a completely black tail, white morph of Red-footed Booby (Sula sula) which has red legs, a paler bill, a pure white head and neck and a distinct black patch on the underwing, and Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) which has a pure white head and neck and a completely black tail.
Compare Images
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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