Nature Atlas

How Nature Works
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Species

Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus)

Birds

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Northern Gannet is a seabird, the largest species of the gannet family Sulidae and the largest seabird in the northern Atlantic, native to the coasts of the North Atlantic Ocean where it breeds in Western Europe and Northeastern North America. The adult has a mainly white streamlined body with a long neck and long, slender wings, measures 87 to 100 centimeters long with a wingspan of 170 to 180 centimeters, carries a buff-tinged head and nape more prominent in breeding season, dark brown-black wingtips, and a long, pointed blue-grey bill with black bare skin around the mouth and eyes; juveniles are mostly grey-brown, becoming increasingly white over the five years it takes them to reach maturity.

Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.