Australasian Gannet

1. White body with black wingtips and a buff-yellow head.

2. Blue eye-ring and pale blue-grey bill with dark edges.

3. Juveniles are mottled brown and white, not resembling adults until maturity.

Australasian Gannets are skilled fishers, feeding mainly on small schooling fish such as pilchards and anchovies. They hunt by soaring above the water and then diving steeply, entering the sea at high speed and using their wings to swim after prey. Their bills have backward-facing serrations to grip slippery fish, which are usually swallowed before the bird resurfaces. Gannets breed in dense colonies on offshore islands and some mainland headlands, with both parents sharing incubation and chick-rearing duties. Young birds take several years to reach adult plumage and breeding maturity

Australasian Gannets are most often found over coastal waters above the continental shelf, especially along the southern and eastern shores of Australia and New Zealand. They are frequently seen from headlands, beaches, and coastal walking tracks, particularly near major breeding colonies such as those in Port Phillip Bay (Victoria) and on islands off Tasmania and New Zealand. During storms, they may venture into bays and estuaries.