Sulidae

(vertebrate zoology) A family of aquatic birds in the order Pelecaniformes including the gannets and boobies.

(Sulidae)

Class: Aves

Order: Pelecaniformes

Suborder: Pelecani

Family: Sulidae

Thumbnail description
Medium to large-sized seabirds with long, narrow, pointed wings and conical bill, highly adapted to catching fish by plunge-diving, often from great heights

Size
25–39 in (64–100 cm); 1.5–7.9 lb (0.7–3.6 kg)

Number of genera, species
3 genera; 9 species

Habitat
Mainly pelagic waters (open seas), breeding on offshore islands

Conservation status
Critically Endangered: 1 species; Vulnerable: 1 species

Distribution
Widespread in tropical, subtropical, and temperate oceans

Evolution and systematics

Boobies and gannets constitute a distinct family of specialist plunge-divers that are most closely related to the cormorants and anhingas (Phalacrocoracidae). They probably originated in the late Cretaceous, more than 60 million years ago. Boobies seem to have appeared first, while the gannets probably split off at a later stage, about 16 million years ago, and developed in the Northern Hemisphere. Available evidence suggests that they also occupied the North Pacific, where no gannets are currently found.

As of 2001, three genera are recognized (although some authors still keep to the classical grouping of all species under the single genus Sula): the genus Papasula comprises one species, the distinct Abbott's booby, possibly the most ancient of today's sulids. All remaining boobies are grouped under the genus Sula, whereas the gannets have been separated and classified in the genus Morus. This system reflects differences in morphology, biology, and ecology among the species, although their high degree of adaptation to the marine environment results in them sharing many characteristics.

Physical characteristics

Boobies and gannets have long, pointed wings and a characteristic cigar-shaped body. This body is medium to large in size, robust, and ends in a fairly long, wedge-shaped tail. The neck is long and thick, with strong, well-developed muscles. The head is dominated by the stout, conical bill. The bare skin around the neck and bill is often brightly colored, and plays an active role in ritual displays. The eyes are placed at each side of the bill and are orientated towards the front, giving the birds excellent binocular vision, which is essential for active fishing from the air.

Like most fish-eating birds, boobies and gannets are predominantly light colored in the underparts, particularly the belly, but also the neck, head, and underwings. The upper-parts, especially the wings, are most often dark. The white-colored underparts blend in against the brighter sky, thus rendering the predator less visible for the prey fish. The dark pigment or melanin in flight feathers protects them from ultraviolet light and salt. In some species (e.g. gannets) the white color, clearly visible from a great distance, attracts large numbers of birds to a feeding source, often a big school of fish. This may give the gannets an advantage: by attacking simultaneously in large numbers and therefore confusing the prey, the birds are able to feed on a shoal that normally is too large for a single individual to exploit efficiently.

As a further adaptation to their specialized fishing technique, boobies and gannets have subcutaneous fat and well-developed air sacs, which act as cushions and protect the birds from the violent impact of crashing into the water. For the same reason, their external nostrils are closed. Sulids also lack brood patches, which would be disadvantageous in a cold aquatic environment. Instead, they incubate by sitting on their "heels" and wrapping highly vascularized webbing of their feet around the eggs. The short and stout legs are situated far back on their bodies, allowing the birds to swim well and to maintain buoyancy even in rough seas.

Distribution

The family Sulidae occurs across the world's oceans, although the distribution patterns are quite distinct. The gannets are typically found in cold or temperate waters of the northern Atlantic ocean, the South African region, and Australia and New Zealand. In the off-season, they disperse over lower latitudes in the same broad areas. A further group of species, the so-called pantropical boobies (masked, redfooted, and brown), are circumpolar in distribution, occurring over most of the world's oceans between the tropics. The Peruvian and blue-footed boobies are more specialized and occur only in the eastern Pacific, along the Humboldt current area, in the Galápagos Islands, and north to southern North America. The Critically Endangered Abbott's booby is confined to tiny Christmas Island, although it had been much more widespread over the Indian Ocean.

Habitat

Boobies and gannets live primarily at sea, an environment to which they are particularly well adapted so they do not need to set foot on land except during the breeding season. Boobies are found in tropical or subtropical waters, whereas gannets favor more temperate environments, occurring even north of the Arctic Circle. Brown and blue-footed boobies often feed in inshore waters, while red-footed and Abbott's take probably the longest foraging trips and are known to occur several hundred kilometers from the nearest land.

A variety of sites are used for breeding, although this occurs almost invariably on offshore islands and on rocky outcrops. Several species place nests directly on exposed, flat ground, others choose to do so on cliffs. The third most common nesting habitat is on top of tall tropical trees or, alternatively, on the lower scrub of oceanic islands.

Behavior

The social behavior of boobies and gannets is complex and has been the subject of various studies, most notably by J. B. Nelson. All species nest colonially in quite high densities, which has favored the development of ritualized displays, particularly to indicate site-ownership or to obtain a mate. These are most developed in aggressive species, such as the northern gannet, that live in packed-in colonies, often on cliffs or other unstable surfaces. By resorting to ritualized behavior, sulids avoid the risks implicit in physical squabbles.

Feeding ecology and diet

Boobies and gannets are highly specialized fish-eaters. They prey mostly on mobile, schooling fish that frequent open waters, such as mackerel, whiting, pilchard, and anchovy. In tropical waters, flying-fish and squid are also frequent prey. A certain degree of opportunism is common in the family; northern gannets often follow trawlers searching for fish discards.

In order to catch their prey, sulids typically plunge-dive from great heights above the water (generally from 33 to 100 ft [10–30 m], but up to 330 ft [100 m] has been recorded). Once they have located their prey, they close their wings and plunge vertically, head first, into the water. Just before entering the water, they extend their wings backwards alongside their body and thus achieve a torpedo-like shape which probably assists them in reaching a greater depth. Once under water, they may use their wings to penetrate even deeper, perhaps up to 82 ft (25 m). Prey is generally caught on the way up and is usually swallowed underwater, thus avoiding the harassment of more opportunistic feeders such as frigate-birds or gulls.

Reproductive biology

Many species, particularly of gannets, pair for life and reunite annually at the nest-site, having spent the off-season individually at sea. In that context, pair-bonding displays play an important role and can take up a significant part of the breeding season. They generally consist of exaggerated movements of the head and neck, and also of the whole body, the wings, feet, and tail. Boobies make extensive use of their wings and feet in displays, most notably the blue-footed with its unique aerial greeting, in which the incoming bird salutes with outstretched feet just as it is about to land.

Not all species are strictly seasonal. The pantropical boobies, in particular, time their breeding attempts to local conditions and food availability. Often in the same colony there may be pairs which are at different breeding stages. However, the three gannets and Abbott's and Peruvian boobies time their nesting seasons to make them coincide with the best weather and the most productive conditions at sea, both during the chick-rearing period and immediately after chicks have fledged. This increases the chances of juvenile survival when the environment is highly seasonal.

Breeding density is moderate to very high; all sulids tend to group in colonies which they sometimes share with other species. Nesting colonies are particularly dense in the case of gannets, especially when located on flat ground. In those cases, nests are spaced regularly, the distance between nests being determined by the maximum length that two neighboring birds can reach with their bills while seated.

Booby and gannet nests are quite rudimentary, especially those of ground-nesting species. Often, they consist only of a slight depression or an accumulation of debris, glued together with the birds' excreta. The tree-nesting red-footed and Abbott's boobies build slightly more elaborate nests, usually a platform of sticks on one of the upper branches.

Most species lay single-egg clutches, as only one chick can be raised successfully in most environments. Only the Peruvian and blue-footed boobies, living in the exceptionally rich waters of the Humboldt current, can expect to raise more than one chick successfully and thus lay three and two eggs respectively. Other species, such as the pantropical masked and brown boobies, often lay two eggs, but subsequently reduce their brood through sibling aggression, the older chick killing its younger sibling and so ensuring that the strongest one receives all of the limited food resources.

Incubation lasts 41–45 days in most species, although Abbott's booby extends its incubation period to an average 57 days. Both sexes contribute in long stints (12–60 hours) and no feeding occurs between the breeding adults. The eggs, which are incubated by wrapping the webbed feet around them, have unusually thick shells.

The chick is born naked and is continuously guarded for the first month, until it can regulate its own body temperature. It is fed on fish remains directly from the parent's mouth and often has to reach into the parent's throat. Chicks grow rapidly, particularly so in the more seasonal gannets which soon attain the adult birds' weight or even go beyond it. In those species, however, no post-fledging care occurs and when young reach fledging age they are left unattended until they jump out to sea on their own. Booby chicks take much longer to fledge (up to five months in Abbott's) and are fed for quite a lengthy period after they fledge.

Conservation status

In its 2000 assessment of the threatened status of the world's birds, BirdLife International classed Abbott's booby as Critically Endangered and the cape gannet as Vulnerable, according to IUCN standards. The booby has its breeding range confined to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, and has suffered a considerable reduction of its distribution within historic times. The population on Christmas Island has declined in the past due to habitat destruction through forest clearance. The introduction in the late 1990s of an alien ant species Anoplolepis gracilipes is predicted to cause a rapid decline through predation on nestlings, habitat alteration, and farming of scale insects that damage the trees. The cape gannet is classified as Vulnerable due to having only six breeding colonies. This renders the species at risk from both natural disasters and human-caused hazards. Among the latter are the risk of an oil spill (one incident in 1993 killed 5,000 gannets) and the more worrying collapse of the sardine fishery in Namibia, formerly the stronghold of the species, which has caused the species to decline severely.

The remaining species are not considered to be globally threatened or in danger of extinction but their continuation depends on conservation of their nesting sites and the overall marine environment. Tourism and the overexploitation of fish stocks may adversely affect several, if not all, species of boobies and gannets. Effective protection of offshore islands where sulids place their colonies is an essential part of any conservation program for these species.

Significance to humans

Over the centuries, humans have exploited boobies and gannets, their eggs and chicks, for food. The birds were at one time an important source of protein for certain local communities in the northern Atlantic. The fact that the birds breed in quite large numbers on islands that are generally accessible has probably contributed to their exploitation by humans. This still occurs throughout the tropics, although perhaps to a lesser degree as environmental education has begun to influence human behavior. Many species have seen their numbers artificially being kept to quite low levels for centuries, and have started to recover only in the last few decades. The Peruvian booby, one of the three "guano birds," has suffered severely from direct disturbance and habitat alterations in the past, during times of the intensive exploitation of guano for agricultural purposes, which continued until well into the first part of the twentieth century.

Species accounts

Resources

Barnes, K. N., ed. The Eskom Red Data Book of Birds of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Johannesburg: BirdLife South Africa, 2000.

BirdLife International. Threatened Birds of the World. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions; and Cambridge, United Kingdom: Bird Lifse International, 2001. del Hoyo, J., A. Elliott, and J. Sargatal, eds. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 1, Ostrich to Ducks. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions, 1992.

Garnett, S. T., and G. M. Crowley. Revised Action Plan for Australian Birds. Canberra: Environment Australia and Birds Australia, 2001.

Harrison, J. A., D. G. Allan, L. G. Underhill, M. Herremans, A. J. Tree, V. Parker, and C. J. Brown, eds. The Atlas of Southern African Birds. Vol. 1, Non-passerines. Johannesburg: BirdLife South Africa, 1997.

Nelson, J. B. The Sulidae: Gannets and Boobies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.

Nelson, J. B. The Gannet. London: T. & A. D. Poyser, 1978.

BirdLife International. Wellbrook Court, Girton Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB3 0NA United Kingdom. Phone: +44 1 223 277 318. Fax: +44-1-223-277-200. E-mail: birdlife@birdlife.org.uk Web site:

[Article by: Carles Carboneras]

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: gannets and boobies
  Synonym: family Sulidae

Sulidae Fossil range: Early Eocene – Recent 47–0 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Brown Booby, Sula leucogaster
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Subclass: Neornithes Infraclass: Neognathae Superorder: Neoaves Order: (see text) Suborder: Sulae Family: Sulidae Reichenbach, 1849
Genera
Morus Papasula Sula
Synonyms
[1] Enkurosulidae Kashin, 1977 Pseudosulidae Harrison, 1975[2]

The bird family Sulidae comprises the gannets and boobies. Collectively called sulidas, they are medium-large coastal seabirds that plunge-dive for fish and similar prey. The species in this family are often considered congeneric in older sources, placing all in the genus Sula. However, Sula (true boobies) and Morus (gannets) can be readily distinguished by morphological and behavioral and DNA sequence characters. Abbott's Booby (Papasula) stands apart from both in these respects and appears to be a distinct and ancient lineage, maybe closer to the gannets than to the true boobies.^[3]

Contents 1 Description 2 Distribution and ecology 2.1 Reproduction 3 Systematics and evolution 3.1 Evolution and fossil genera 4 Footnotes 5 References 6 External links

Description

Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) preparing to dive

Sulids measure about 60 to 85 cm (24 to 33 in) in length and have a wingspan of about 140 to 175 cm (4.6 to 5.7 ft). They have long, narrow and pointed wings, and a quite long, graduated and rather lozenge-shaped tail whose outer feathers are shorter than the central ones. Their flight muscles are rather small to allow for the small cross section required for plunge-diving, and thus their wing loading is high. Consequently, they are very streamlined, reducing drag, so their bodies are "torpedo-shaped" as well as somewhat flat.^[4]

They have stout legs and webbed feet, with the web connecting all four toes. In some species the webs are brightly colored and used in courtship displays. The bill is usually conspicuously colored, long, deep at the base, and pointed, with saw-like edges. The upper mandible curves down slightly at the tip and can be moved upward to accept large prey. To keep water out during plunges, the nostrils enter into the bill rather than opening to the outside directly. he eyes are angled forward, and provide a wider field of binocular vision than in most other birds.^[4]

The plumage is either all-white (or light brownish or greyish) with dark wingtips and (usually) tail, or at least some dark brown or black above with white underparts; gannets have a yellowish hue to the head. The face usually has some sort of black markings, typically on the lores. Unlike their relatives (the darters and cormorants), sulids have a well-developed preen gland whose waxy secretions they spread on their feathers for waterproofing and pest control. They moult their tail feathers irregularly and the flight feathers of their wings in stages, so that starting at the first moult, they always have some old feathers, some new ones, and some partly grown ones. Moult as a response to periods of stress has been recorded.^[4]

Distribution and ecology

The sulids are distributed mainly in tropical and subtropical waters. Particularly gannets, however, are found in temperate regions too. These birds are not truly pelagic seabirds like the related Procellariiformes, and usually stay rather close to the coasts. But the abundant colonies of sulids that exist on many Pacific islands suggest that they are not infrequently blown away from their home range by storms, and can wander for long distances in search of a safe place to land if need be.^[4]

All species feed entirely at sea, mostly on mid-sized fish and similarly-sized marine invertebrates (e.g. cephalopods). Many species feed communally, and some species follow fishing boats to scavenge discarded bycatch and chum. The typical hunting behavior is a dive from mid-air, taking the bird a meter or two under water. If prey manages to escape the diving birds at first, they may give chase using their legs and wings for underwater swimming.^[4]

As noted above, the behavioral traits of gannets and boobies differ considerably, but the Sulidae as a whole are characterized by several behavioral synapomorphies: Before taking off, they will point the bill upwards (gannets) or forward (boobies). After landing again, they point downwards with the bill. And in response to a threat, they will not attack but shake their heads and point the bill towards the intruder.^[5]

A Blue-footed Booby (Sula nebouxii) incubating its eggs

Reproduction

All sulids breed in colonies. Males examine the colony area in flight and then pick a nest site, which they defend by fighting and by territorial displays. Males then advertise to females by a special display and call. The display behaviour is characteristic, though not as diverse as the numerous variations found among the cormorants; it typically includes the male shaking its head. Females search the colony in flight and on foot for a mate. Once they select males, pairs maintain their bonds by preening each other and by frequent copulation.^[6]

Fledgling Abbott's Booby, still covered in nestling down

The clutch is typically 2 eggs. The eggs are unmarked (but may become stained by debris in the nest), whitish, pale blue, green or pink, and have a coating that resembles lime. Their^{[verification needed]} weight ranges from 3.3 percent to 8 percent of the female's. Incubation lasts 42 to 55 days, depending on the species. Both sexes incubate; like their relatives they do not have brood patches, but their feet become vascularized and hot, and the birds place the eggs under the webs. Eggs lost during the first half of incubation are replaced.^[4]

At hatching, parents move the eggs and then the hatchlings to the tops of their webs. The young hatch naked, but soon develop white down. They beg by touching the parent's bill and take regurgitated food straight from its gape. At first at least one parent is always in attendance of the altricial young; after two weeks, both parents leave the nest unguarded at times while they go fishing. The times for the chicks to fledge and to become independent of their parents depend greatly on the food supply. Rarely does more than one chick survive to maturity, except in the Peruvian Booby (Sula variegata) – which has the biggest clutch (two to four eggs) –, and less often in the Blue-footed Booby (S. nebouxii) . Siblicide by the stronger of two chicks is frequent.^[4]

Systematics and evolution

Sulids are related to a number of other aquatic birds which all lack external nostrils and a brood patch, but have all four toes webbed and a gular sac. The closest living relatives of the Sulidae are the Phalacrocoracidae (cormorants and shags) and the Anhingidae (darters). The latter are somewhat intermediate between sulids and cormorants, but (like many cormorants) they are freshwater birds in a clade containing otherwise seabirds, and also symplesiomorphic with sulids but synapomorphic with cormorants in some other respects. Thus, the Sulidae seem to be the oldest and most distinct lineage of those three, which are united in a suborder Sulae. Therein, the Sulidae are typically placed simply as a family; sometimes a superfamily Suloidea is recognized, wherein some of the primitive prehistoric forms (e.g. Empheresula, Eostega and Masillastega) are placed as basal lineages distinct from the living Sulidae. However, the proposed family Pseudosulidae (or Enkurosulidae) is almost certainly invalid.^[7]

The Sulae were traditionally included in the "Pelecaniformes" in its obsolete paraphyletic circumscription. But pelicans, the namesake family of the Pelecaniformes, are actually closer related to storks than to the sulids and allies. In recognition of this, the Sulae have been proposed for separation in a new order Phalacrocoraciformes, which also includes the frigatebirds (Fregatidae) as well as one or more prehistoric lineages that are entirely extinct today.^[8]

There are three living genera. One is monotypic, another has but a few species, while the third contains about 65% of all living sulids:

• Sula (boobies, 6 species)
• Papasula (Abbott's Booby)
• Morus (gannets, 3 species)

Evolution and fossil genera

The fossil record of sulids is quite extensive due to the many Miocene/Pliocene forms that have been recovered. But the lineage of sulids extends back to the Eocene, and all things (such as the Early Eocene frigatebird Limnofregata) considered, the sulids seem to have diverged from the lineage leading to cormorants and darters around 50 million years ago (Ma), perhaps a bit earlier. The initial evolutionary radiation formed a number of genera which are now completely extinct, such as the freshwater Masillastega (which, as noted above, might not have been a modern-type sulid) or the bizarre Rhamphastosula (which had a bill shaped like an aracari's). The modern genera evolved (like many other living genera of birds) around the Oligocene-Miocene boundary about 23 Ma. Microsula, which lived during that time, seems to have been a primitive booby that still had many symplesiomorphies with gannets. Like the other Phalacrocoraciformes, the sulids originated probably in the general region of the Atlantic or western Tethys Sea – probably the latter rather than the former, given that their earliest fossils are abundant in Europe but absent from the well-studied contemporary American deposits.^[9]

Prehistoric sulids (or suloids) only known from fossils are:

• Masillastega (Early Eocene of Messel, Germany) – may belong in Eostega
• Eostega (Late Eocene of Cluj-Manastur, Romania) – may include Masillastega
• Sulidae gen. et sp. indet. (Thalberg Late Oligocene of Germany) – Empheresula?^[10]
• Sulidae gen. et sp. indet. (Late Oligocene of South Carolina, USA) – Microsula?^[11]
• Empheresula (Late Oligocene of Gannat, France – Middle Miocene of Steinheimer Becken, Germany) – including "Sula" arvernensis, Parasula^[12]
• Microsula (Late Oligocene of South Carolina, USA – Grund Middle Miocene of Austria) – may belong in Sula, includes "Sula" avita, "S." pygmaea, Enkurosula, Pseudosula^[2]
• Sarmatosula (Middle Miocene of Credinţa, Romania)
• Miosula (Late Miocene of California)
• Palaeosula (Early Pliocene? of California)
• Rhamphastosula (Pisco Early Pliocene of SC Peru)
• Sulidae gen. et sp. indet. (Late Pliocene of Valle di Fine, Italy) – Morus?^[13]

For prehistoric species of the extant genera, see the genus articles.

The Early Oligocene Prophalacrocorax ronzoni of Ronzon (France) was variously placed in the seaduck genus Mergus, in Sula, and – after a distinct genus was established for it – in the Phalacrocoracidae. While it is quite likely to belong in the Sulae and may have been an ancient sulid (or suloid), of the three placements explicitly proposed none seems to be correct.^[14]

Footnotes

1. ^ Mlíkovský (2002): p.66
2. ^ ^{a b} C.J.O. Harrison's Pseudosula of 1975 is a junior homonym of Pseudosula as established by Boetticher in 1955: Mlíkovský (2002): p.67
3. ^ Kennedy et al. (1996), Friesen et al. (2000)
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Nelson (2003)
5. ^ Kennedy et al. (1996)
6. ^ Kennedy et al. (1996), Nelson (2003)
7. ^ Olson (1985): p.204, Mlíkovský (2002): p.66, Christidis & Boles (2008): p.100, Mayr (2009)
8. ^ Christidis & Boles (2008): p.100
9. ^ Olson (1985), Mayr (2009)
10. ^ A distal humerus fragment; larger than Microsula: Göhlich (2003), Mayr (2009): p.65
11. ^ Some fossils that "do not differ substantially from modern [sulid] genera"; no further details given: Olson (1985): p.203
12. ^ C.J.O. Harrison's Parasula of 1975 is a junior homonym of Parasula as established by Mathews in 1913: Mlíkovský (2002): p.66
13. ^ A proximal humerus fragment somewhat similar to a gannet's: Lambrecht (1933): p.286
14. ^ Olson (1985): p.203, Mlíkovský (2002): p.264, Göhlich (2003), Mayr (2009): p.65

References

• Christidis, Les & Boles, Walter E. (2008): Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. CSIRO Publishing, CollingwoodVictoria, Australia. ISBN 9780643065116 Excerpt at Google Books
• Friesen, V.L.; Anderson, D.J.; Steeves, T.E.; Jones, H. & Schreiber, E.A. (2002): Molecular Support for Species Status of the Nazca Booby (Sula granti). Auk 119(3): 820-826. [English with Spanish abstract] DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2002)119[0820:MSFSSO]2.0.CO;2 PDF fulltext
• Göhlich, Ursula B. (2003): The avifauna of the Grund Beds (Middle Miocene, Early Badenian, northern Austria). Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums Wien A 104: 237-249 [English with German abstract]. PDF fulltext
• Kennedy, Martyn; Spencer, Hamish G. & Gray, Russell D. (1996): Hop, step and gape: do the social displays of the Pelecaniformes reflect phylogeny? Animal Behaviour 51(2): 273-291. doi:10.1006/anbe.1996.0028 (HTML abstract) Erratum: Animal Behaviour 51(5): 1197. doi:10.1006/anbe.1996.0124
• Lambrecht, Kálmán (1933): Familia Sulidae. In: Handbuch der Palaeornithologie: 284-287. Gebrüder Bornträger, Berlin.
• Mayr, Gerald (2009): 7.1.3 Sulidae (Gannets and Boobies). In: Paleogene Fossil Birds: 64-65. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg & New York. ISBN 3540896279 Excerpt at Google Books
• Mlíkovský, Jirí (2002): Cenozoic Birds of the World (Part 1: Europe). Ninox Press, Prague. ISBN 80-901105-3-8 PDF fulltext
• Nelson, J. Bryan (2003): Gannets and Boobies. In: Perrins, C. (ed.): The Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds: 82–87. Firefly Books, Oxford.
• Olson, Storrs L. (1985): Section X.G.5.a. Sulidae. In: The Fossil Record of Birds. Avian Biology 8: 203-204. PDF fulltext

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sulidae

• Sulidae videos on the Internet Bird Collection

v • d • e Gannets and boobies (family: Sulidae) Genus Species Sula Blue-footed Booby • Peruvian Booby • Masked Booby • Nazca Booby • Red-footed Booby • Brown Booby • Tasman Booby Papasula Abbott's Booby Morus Northern Gannet • Cape Gannet • Australasian Gannet

v • d • e Order: Pelecaniformes Family Fregatidae (frigatebirds) • Pelecanidae (pelicans) • Sulidae (gannets and boobies) • Phalacrocoracidae (cormorants and shags) • Anhingidae (darters)

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