Northern Gannet vs Cocos Booby
Morus bassanus compared with Sula brewsteri
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Attribute | Northern Gannet | Cocos Booby |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific Name | Morus bassanus | Sula brewsteri |
| Order | Suliformes | Suliformes |
| Family | Sulidae | Sulidae |
| Conservation Status | Least Concern | Not Evaluated |
| Length | 93.0 cm (36.6 in) | — |
| Wingspan | 180.0 cm (70.9 in) | — |
| Weight | 3000.0 g (105.82 oz) | 1285.4250000000002 g (45.34 oz) |
| Diet | Shoaling fish, especially mackerel, herring, and capelin. Plunge-dives from heights of 30 meters at speeds … | -- |
| Clutch Size | 1 | 1-2 |
| Population Trend | — | — |
Size Comparison
Habitat Comparison
Northern Gannet
Open ocean and coastal waters. Breeds in dense colonies on steep rocky islands and sea stacks.
Song & Call Comparison
Northern Gannet
Loud, harsh 'urrah-urrah' grunting and croaking at breeding colonies on sea stacks. Also gives a softer 'karrr' in flight. Large colonies are extremely noisy during the breeding season.
Cocos Booby
Geographic Range & Migration
Northern Gannet
North Atlantic, breeding from Newfoundland and Gulf of St. Lawrence to Norway, Iceland, and Britain. Winters at sea south to the tropics.
Cocos Booby
Conservation Status
Northern Gannet
Cocos Booby
How to Tell Them Apart
Northern Gannet
Brilliant white body with black wingtips and a golden-yellow wash on the head and nape. Blue-grey bill with dark lines and pale blue eye-ring.
Long, straight, pointed, pale blue-grey bill with serrated edges
Cocos Booby
About These Birds
Northern Gannet
The northern gannet is a spectacular plunge-diver, folding its two-meter wingspan into an arrow shape to hit the water at up to 100 km/h. Air sacs under the skin and a reinforced skull protect it from the impact. Bass Rock in Scotland hosts over 150,000 gannets, the largest single colony of any seabird in the world.
Cocos Booby
76–84 cm. Brown and white booby restricted to Cocos Island and nearby east Pacific islands; sometimes treated as subspecies of Brown Booby. Plunge-dives for fish in productive eastern Pacific waters. Near Threatened; small breeding range; feeds on flying fish and anchovy.