Northern Gannet
April 10, 2019
Originally published April 8, 2018
Northern Gannet
Morus bassanus
by Stefan Martin
With the days growing longer, and warmer weather just around the corner, most of us are thinking the same thing – spring. More importantly though, spring migration! Most people associate spring migration with songbirds such as warblers or other delightfully petite and colorful passerines but there’s another bird that comes to my mind – the Northern Gannet.
Weighing just under eight pounds, with a five-and-a-half foot wingspan, the Gannet is basically the extreme opposite of your typical songbird but can be just as mesmerizing. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to observe it in person, you know what I’m talking about.
With a diet consisting entirely of fish, this bird is specially designed for a life at sea. It’s body is missile-like, its wings long, thin, and tapered. Watching it hunt is nothing short of spectacular. When the bird spots a meal, it will suddenly shift toward the water, tuck its wings back straight behind its body, and plunge-dive at blinding speeds from upwards of 100 feet or more.
Seeing this in person is something I highly recommend. It’s a sight you won’t soon forget.
Where and when to find it: Because the Northern Gannet spends most of its time away from the immediate coast and over deeper waters, you wouldn’t think of Long Island Sound as being the best place to see it. That’s true for the majority of the year but not now. The best time to see Northern Gannets from the Connecticut coast is late March to mid April while they are migrating north to their breeding grounds in Newfoundland.
During this time, Gannets can be regular and in some years even abundant depending on food availability.
There is the potential to see gannets at close range, virtually anywhere along the coast. One hotspot in particular is Stratford Point. This property extends nearly a mile out into the Sound, at the mouth of the Housatonic River, historically a great location for large numbers of bait fish.
A year ago (April 12) we counted a Connecticut state record 814 Gannets at one time – a day I will never forget.
Other than spring migration you may get lucky and spot one from shore cruising Long Island Sound in search of food while they are moving back and forth between their extensive wintering grounds. The best locations for these winter sightings are towards the Eastern half of the state closer to the Race.
What it looks like: Even with its large size and unique shape, the Northern Gannet can be mistaken for a few different birds at a distance, most commonly a gull. There are a few things to keep in mind when trying to identify this large pelagic species:
- Familiarize yourself with the bird’s contrasting plumage. Northern Gannets can take up to four years to reach their full adult plumage but, lucky for us, the majority of the birds seen in the state are adults. Adult Northern Gannets have bright white bodies with dark black wingtips or primaries and a long slender appearance with a noticeably long head projection. At a distance, this should stand out and help you distinguish it from other birds such as gulls.
- Note that gannets differ from gulls in behavior and flight. As I mentioned before, gannets will plunge-dive. If you see this behavior, you can immediately eliminate all gull species and feel confident with your identification.
- Watch the way the bird is flapping. When Gannets fly, they tend to flap and then glide, unlike Gulls, which (for the most part) will continuously flap.
Conservation status: The Northern Gannet is listed by the IUCN as a species of Least Concern based on an extensive range size, with populations on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and breeding sites in France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland and Norway, and small colonies in Newfoundland and Canada.
Stefan Martin, who recently joined the staff of Connecticut Audubon, is an avid outdoorsman and is a talented and well-rounded naturalist and a passionate conservationist.
Photos courtesy of Mark Szantyr.
