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.
Population
Estimated population is 110,000 (2010).
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.
Australasian Gannet (Morus serrator) [XC188409]
by Dan Lane from Muriwai, Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand (call)
Australasian Gannet (Morus serrator) [XC293327]
by Chris Benesh from Sea Stacks, Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand (call)
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.
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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BirdLife International Species Factsheet