Gannets and boobies | Sulidae

Genten | Alcatraces y piqueros

Large seabirds with a cigar-shaped body, long pointed wings and a wedge-shaped tail; the heavy conical bill has no hook, but its finely serrated cutting edges hold a slippery fish. The eyes are set well forward and give the depth judgement the plunge dive demands: from ten to thirty metres up the bird falls into the sea with its wings swept back, air sacs under the skin of head, neck and breast absorbing the impact. Over the cold upwelling along the west coast they hunt shoals of sardine and anchovy in dense swarms, alongside seals, dolphins and shearwaters. The gannet breeds in colonies of tens of thousands of pairs on a handful of rock islands and guano platforms, one egg a year on a raised mound of droppings and seaweed, while the boobies of the genus Sula nest more loosely and in smaller numbers in the tropical waters off the eastern coasts and islands. The chick hatches black and naked and needs three to four years to reach adult plumage.