Colours
Distinguishing features
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 yellow, with a pale blue-grey bill edged in 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. (Wikipedia)
Size
- From 90 cm to 95 cm (Length of specimen)
Wingspan
- Up to 200 cm
Synonyms
Similar taxa
-
Animalia:
Cape Gannet (species: Morus capensis)
The Cape Gannet is identified from the Australasian Gannet by the all-black tail, a longer black stripe down the throat (from underneath the beak) and more extensive black on the face, but all of these features are difficult to identify unless at close proximity. (Wikipedia)
Distribution
©Atlas of Living Australia: Australian distribution
Distribution and habitat preferences
Their breeding habitat is on islands off Victoria and Tasmania in Australia and New Zealand. (Wikipedia)
Local abundance
- Cape Kidnappers, New Zealand: common
Diet
These birds are plunge divers and spectacular fishers, plunging into the ocean at high speed (up to 100 km/h). They mainly eat squid and forage fish which school near the surface.
