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  Profile

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  In flight

Seabirds

Northern Gannet

Morus bassanus

• rare
• 90 km/h
• Least Concern

A North Atlantic dive-bomber that folds into a feathered spear and slams into the sea after fish. Intense from every angle.

Population

~1.5–1.8 million mature individuals globally (BirdLife DataZone, 2012 data), increasing; note a secondary estimate elsewhere gives ~950,000–1,200,000

Habitat

Marine and coastal: breeds colonially on sea cliffs and rocky offshore islands, forages over open pelagic ocean and shoaling fish, ranging far out to sea outside the breeding season

Fun fact

Northern Gannets plunge-dive from heights up to 30 m and can hit the water at speeds around 100 km/h, aided by air sacs beneath their skin that cushion the impact.

Range

North Atlantic on both sides: breeding colonies in eastern Canada (Quebec's Gulf of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland), Iceland, the UK and Ireland, France, Norway, and northwest Russia (Kola Peninsula); winters and disperses south along Atlantic coasts (US mid-Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, West Africa) and into the Mediterranean

Diet

Primarily small-to-medium shoaling pelagic fish (herring, mackerel, sardines, anchovies, sand eels, capelin), caught via spectacular plunge-diving; occasionally squid

Size

0.94 m

Wingspan

1.75 m

Lifespan

17 years