General Description

Body white with brown-black wing tips. Head yellow-orange with a narrow black stripe along the throat. Young birds have mottled upperparts that are dark-brown with many white spots, and white underparts. Large white bill. Body up to 95 cm long.

Biology

Australasian Gannets dive underwater to catch fish by rapidly plunging down from several metres above the surface. Colonial breeders, they build a shallow nest out of compacted earth and guano. They breed from July through to February on islands in Bass Strait and south of Tasmania.

Distribution

New Zealand. Eastern and southern mainland Australia and Tasmania.

Habitat

Coastline and large coastal bays.

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