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Many shearwaters are long-distance migrants, perhaps most spectacularly sooty shearwaters, which cover distances in excess of 14,000 km (8,700 mi) from their breeding colonies on the Falkland Islands (52°S 60°W) to as far as 70° north latitude in the North Atlantic Ocean off northern Norway, and around New Zealand to as far as 60° north latitude in the North Pacific Ocean off Alaska.
The plumage of most seabirds is less colourful than that of land birds, restricted in the main to variations of black, white or grey. [20] A few species sport colourful plumes (such as the tropicbirds and some penguins), but most of the colour in seabirds appears in the bills and legs.
The most important family culturally is the albatrosses, which have been described by one author as "the most legendary of birds". [76] Albatrosses have featured in poetry in the form of Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's famous 1798 poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner , which in turn gave rise to the usage of albatross as metaphor for a burden . [ 77 ]
Most seabirds are colonial, and the reasons for colonial behaviour are assumed to be similar, if incompletely understood by scientists. Procellariids for the most part have weak legs and are unable to easily take off, making them highly vulnerable to mammalian predators. Most procellariid colonies are located on islands that have historically ...
Within these colonies, they most often nest in groups of 10 to 30 (or rarely 100) individuals. [46] Breeding can occur at any time of year, often prompted by commencement of the dry season or plentiful food. [44] Frigatebirds have the most elaborate mating displays of all seabirds.
Gannets can achieve speeds of 100 km/h (62.13 mph) as they strike the water, enabling them to catch fish at a much greater depth than most airborne birds. [ 5 ] The gannet's supposed capacity for eating large quantities of fish has led to "gannet" becoming a description of somebody with a voracious appetite.
The Australasian gannet (Morus serrator), also known as the Australian gannet or tākapu, is a large seabird of the booby and gannet family, Sulidae.Adults are mostly white, with black flight feathers at the wingtips and lining the trailing edge of the wing.
Adult near Burrow on Bruny Island. The photograph was taken at night. Fledgling, Austins Ferry, Tasmania, Australia. The short-tailed shearwater or slender-billed shearwater (Ardenna tenuirostris; formerly Puffinus tenuirostris), also called yolla or moonbird, and commonly known as the muttonbird in Australia, is the most abundant seabird species in Australian waters, and is one of the few ...