Morus bassanus - Northern Gannet
Feather characters. Barbules are rather short (0.4-0.9 mm) and filamentous without any pigmented parts. Borders between cells are visible, but hardly swollen and thus too small to qualify as nodes. These nodal structures (25-32 per mm) have about the same size along the entire length of the barbules, only slightly decreasing towards the tip. Villi are absent and internodes are straight. Prongs are equally distributed along the entire length of barbules and occur on both sides of the pennulum, but they are usually folded to one side only. They are extremely long, longest in the middle and slightly decreasing towards both base and tip of the barbule. The longest prongs are often longer than their adjacent internode. The prongs are slender and frequently twisted.
Field characters. Length 87-100 cm; wingspan 165-180 cm. Weight: male 2932 g (2470-347), female 3067 g (2570-3610) (Dunning, 1993). A large goose-sized white seabird with long, narrow, black-tipped wings, long neck (as compared with gulls), pointed tail and long, pointed beak. In flight body has characteristic "cigar-shape". Young birds dark, speckled with white. Immatures at intermediate ages show various pied plumages. Flies with regular, rather rapid wing-beats, varied with occasional glides; when fishing birds dive headlong from the air into the sea, with wings stretched.
Voice. On the breeding grounds a loud, hoarse "urrah".
Distribution. Local; breeding colonies sometimes very large. Map: see MapIt.
Habitat. Breeds on stacks, isolated rocky islands, precipitous cliffs of mainland or large islands.
Food. Mainly fish (ranging from 2.5-3.5 cm in length), captured after impressive plunging from 10-40 m, or by dive from surface. Birds may wander 100 miles or more from colony during fishing trips.