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Bird name:

Northern Gannet

Morus bassanus

Order

PELECANIFORMES

Family

Booby and Gannets (Sulidae)

Code 4

NOGA

Code 6

MORBAS

ITIS

174712

Breeding Location:

Rocky cliffs, Coastal, sea, Islands, flat

Breeding Type:

Monogamous, Colonial

Breeding Population:

Very common

Egg Color:

Light blue, nest stained

Number of Eggs:

Incubation Days:

42 - 44

Egg Incubator:

Both sexes

Nest Material:

Grass, seaweed.

Migration:

Migratory

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General

Northern Gannet: Very large seabird. White above and below with black primaries and long pointed wings. Light yellow wash on crown of head extending down nape may be visible. Bill, legs, and feet are gray. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has speckled gray upperparts, faintly streaked gray underparts, and dark tail with white uppertail coverts.

Range and Habitat

Northern Gannet: Pelagic species found on the Atlantic coast. Often seen from shore, also may be found far from shore in open ocean. Breeds on coasts of north eastern Canada. Winters from Maine to Texas-Mexico border along Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

Breeding and Nesting

Northern Gannet: Monogamous colonial nester often with long term pairing. Male and female build nest of grass and seaweed on coastal rocky cliff, ground or rocky island. Nest may be reused in subsequent years with material being added to repair it. Female lays one light blue egg that becomes nest stained. Both sexes incubate egg for 42 to 44 days and tend altricial nestlings until fledging at 84 to 97 days.

Foraging and Feeding

Northern Gannet: Pelagic species, feeds on fish, especially mackerel and herring, and squid. Steadily flaps and glides into the wind above water scanning for prey. Dives into water from heights averaging 30 to 50 feet, rarely up to 90 feet. Reinforced skull helps dampen diving impact on the head. Dives produce little or no splash.

Vocalization

Northern Gannet: Usually non-vocal. Feeding call a low barking "grrah, grrah, grrah" or "grrrrrou."

Similar Species

Northern Gannet: Adult significantly larger overall with longer neck and bill than Herring and other large Gulls. Brown booby adult has much more extensive black on wings and all black tail. Juvenile Gannet may be confused with Brown Booby which is smaller and much darker overall. Juveniles also confused with Masked Booby which have more white on the underside of the wings, and show little or no white on the tail.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Underparts

Belly, undertail coverts, chest, flanks, and foreneck.

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

Crown

The crown is the top part of the birds head.

Nape

Also called the hindneck or collar, it is the back of the neck where the head joins the body.

Primaries

The primaries are the flight feathers specialized for flight. They are attached to the "hand" equivalent part of the wing.

Pelagic

The pelagic is a type of bird whose habitat is on the open ocean rather than in a coastal region or on inland bodies of water (lakes, rivers). An example of a pelagic bird is the blacklegged kittiwake.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America