Australasian Gannet

Morus serrator (Gray, GR, 1843)

Australasian Gannet, Morus serrator, breeds on islets off south-western Australia, in Bass Strait and Tasmania, at Philip Island in the Norfolk group east of Australia, and on the North and South Islands of New Zealand. Outside the breeding season it ranges to coasts and large bays in south-western, southern and south-eastern Australia. It is a seabird in the Sulidae family, and adults are chiefly white with black on the wing tips and tail, plus a buff-yellow wash on the head and a pale bill with dark edging.

Order

Suliformes

Family

Sulidae — Gannets, Boobies

Breeding range

Australasia: islets off sw Australia, Bass Strait and Tasmania, Philip I. (Norfolk group, e of Australia) and North and South Is. (New Zealand)

Nonbreeding range

to coasts and large bays of sw, s, se Australia