The Zoochat Photographic Guide to Suliformes

[Chlidonias]

SULIFORMES


The order Suliformes as currently recognised is comprised of four families (for frigatebirds, gannets, anhingas, and cormorants), all of which were formerly within the order Pelecaniformes. This latter order had contained, as well as these four families, also the families for tropicbirds (now in their own order, Phaethontiformes) and for pelicans (retained in Pelecaniformes). Although one can see how all these birds are morphologically similar in many ways - the dominant reason they were combined was that they are totipalmate, having all four toes webbed (all other web-footed birds have the back toe free) - genetic studies have shown them to not be closely related.


Reshuffling of families due to genetic research has resulted in not just the Suliformes and Phaethontiformes being removed from Pelecaniformes, but also in some of the families from Ciconiiformes being moved over to join the pelicans in Pelecaniformes - namely the Shoebill (which had joined pelicans some time earlier), Hamerkop, herons, and ibises and spoonbills. This left Ciconiiformes containing only the storks.


There was a move to rename Suliformes to "Phalacrocoraciformes", apparently based solely on the fact that there are more species of Phalacrocoracidae (cormorants) than there are of Sulidae (gannets and boobies), but this gained no traction.



The Pelecaniformes photographic guide is here: The Zoochat Photographic Guide To The Pelecaniformes


The Ciconiiformes photographic guide is here: The Zoochat Photographic Guide to Storks


The Phaethontiformes will be included in an upcoming photographic guide containing a seemingly-diverse range of birds which are nevertheless the closest relatives of one another (including also such birds as loons, penguins, and tubenoses).



As always, thanks are given to all the hard-working photographers who make these threads (and the future threads) possible. The list of members whose photos have been used in this thread is here on page 5 - The Zoochat Photographic Guide to Suliformes

 

[Chlidonias]

SULIFORMES

Four families, with about sixty species in six to thirteen genera (depending on taxonomic opinion). Forty-seven species are represented in the Zoochat galleries as living birds. All the genera are also represented here.

Unlike in my photographic mammal threads, for these bird threads I am not going to be using photos of taxidermy specimens. However where these exist in the Zoochat galleries I will provide a link to them (rather than displaying the photo in the thread).


Note: any references to HBW (Handbook of the Birds of the World) within the thread are to the online version, HBW Alive, due to it being more current than the print version of HBW. Note, however, that the HBW Alive website is now defunct, replaced with Cornell's Birds of the World (BOW) which has a somewhat differing taxonomy.



FREGATIDAE
Frigatebirds
Five species in a single genus, of which four species are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


SULIDAE
Gannets and Boobies
Ten species in three genera, all of which are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


ANHINGIDAE
Anhingas or Darters
Four species in a single genus, all of which are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


PHALACROCORACIDAE
Cormorants
Forty-plus species in one to eight genera (depending on taxonomic opinion; I am using eight in this thread), of which twenty-nine species are represented in the Zoochat galleries.

 

[Yoshistar888]

SULIFORMES


The order Suliformes as currently recognised is comprised of four families (for frigatebirds, gannets, anhingas, and cormorants), all of which were formerly within the order Pelecaniformes. This latter order had contained, as well as these four families, also the families for tropicbirds (now in their own order, Phaethontiformes) and for pelicans (retained in Pelecaniformes). Although one can see how all these birds are morphologically similar in many ways - the dominant reason they were combined was that they are totipalmate, having all four toes webbed (all other web-footed birds have the back toe free) - genetic studies have shown them to not be closely related.


Reshuffling of families due to genetic research has resulted in not just the Suliformes and Phaethontiformes being removed from Pelecaniformes, but also in some of the families from Ciconiiformes being moved over to join the pelicans in Pelecaniformes - namely the Shoebill (which had joined pelicans some time earlier), Hamerkop, herons, and ibises and spoonbills. This left Ciconiiformes containing only the storks.


There was a move to rename Suliformes to "Phalacrocoraciformes", apparently based solely on the fact that there are more species of Phalacrocoracidae (cormorants) than there are of Sulidae (gannets and boobies), but this gained no traction.



The Pelecaniformes photographic guide is here: The Zoochat Photographic Guide To The Pelecaniformes


The Ciconiiformes photographic guide is here: The Zoochat Photographic Guide to Storks


The Phaethontiformes will be included in an upcoming photographic guide containing a seemingly-diverse range of birds which are nevertheless the closest relatives of one another (including also such birds as loons, penguins, and tubenoses).

Nice a new official photographic guide.

 

[Chlidonias]

FREGATIDAE
Frigatebirds
Five species in a single genus, of which four species are represented in the Zoochat galleries.

Ascension Frigatebird Fregata aquila (not depicted here)
Christmas Island Frigatebird Fregata andrewsi
Lesser Frigatebird Fregata ariel
Magnificent Frigatebird Fregata magnificens
Great Frigatebird Fregata minor

Additionally, two subspecies have been proposed as being full species, namely the critically-endangered Fregata ariel trinitatis from the Trindade archipelago (Brazil) in the south Atlantic Ocean; and Fregata magnificens rothschildi from the Galapagos Islands.


Frigatebirds are relatively-large pelagic seabirds with extremely long wings and long forked tails. They occur throughout the tropics and subtropics worldwide. In all species the male and female birds have different colouration, and there is a diverse scale of juvenile and immature plumages.

Three of the species are common (Lesser Frigatebird, Magnificent Frigatebird, and Great Frigatebird), and two are endangered (the Ascension Frigatebird and Christmas Island Frigatebird, both of which breed on only one island).

 

[Chlidonias]

Ascension Frigatebird Fregata aquila
Monotypic


A breeding endemic of Ascension Island in the south Atlantic (although breeding is now restricted to Boatswainbird Island off the coast of Ascension).


There are no photos of this species in the Zoochat galleries.

 

[Chlidonias]

Christmas Island Frigatebird Fregata andrewsi
Monotypic


A breeding endemic of Christmas Island (Australia) in the east Indian Ocean, but otherwise ranges widely in the Indian Ocean and through the southeast Asian archipelago.



Photo by @Hix in the wild, Christmas Island (Australia) - adult male

Christmas Island Frigatebird male - ZooChat


Photo by @Hix in the wild, Christmas Island (Australia) - adult female

Christmas Island Frigatebird female - ZooChat

 

[Chlidonias]

Lesser Frigatebird Fregata ariel
Three subspecies: ariel, iredalei, trinitatis

Only the nominate subspecies ariel is represented in the Zoochat galleries.


F. a. ariel breeds in the central and eastern Indian Ocean, ranging throughout the southeast Asian archipelago and into the central Pacific Ocean.

F. a. iredalei breeds in the western Indian Ocean.

F. a. trinitatis breeds only in the Trindade archipelago (Brazil) in the south Atlantic Ocean, and is thought to now be restricted to one islet where there may be as few as twenty pairs remaining. In 2017 this subspecies was proposed to be elevated to a full species.



Photo by @Hix in the wild, Christmas Island (Australia) - adult male of the subspecies ariel.

Lesser Frigatebird - ZooChat


Photo by @Hix in the wild, Christmas Island (Australia) - adult female of the subspecies ariel.

Lesser Frigatebird female - ZooChat

 

[Chlidonias]

Magnificent Frigatebird Fregata magnificens
Three subspecies are usually recognised: lowei, magnificens, rothschildi

The subspecies magnificens and rothschildi are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


F. m. lowei breeds on the Cape Verde Island in the east Atlantic.

F. m. magnificens breeds largely on islands off Central America, from northwest Mexico to Ecuador on the Pacific coast, and Florida to southern Brazil on the Atlantic coast.

F. m. rothschildi breeds in the Galapagos Islands. This subspecies has been considered a full species by some authors.



Photo by @Newzooboy in the wild, Costa Rica - adult male of the subspecies magnificens, showing the entirely black plumage and red gular pouch.

Male Magnificent Frigate Bird - ZooChat


Photo by @zoo_sipsik in the wild, Mexico - adult female of the subspecies magnificens (note the black head and white breast).

Magnificent frigatebird (Fregata magnificens) - ZooChat


Photo by @vogelcommando in the wild, Mexico - immature of the subspecies magnificens (adult females have a black head and only the breast is white).

Magnificent frigatebird - ZooChat


Photo by @alexkant at Aviario Nacional de Colombia (Colombia) - juvenile of the subspecies magnificens.

Magnificent frigatebird / Fregata magnificens - ZooChat


Photo by @AWP in the wild, Galapagos Islands (Ecuador) - male of the subspecies rothschildi showing the inflated pouch which is used in display.

Magnificent Frigatebird - ZooChat

 

[Chlidonias]

Great Frigatebird Fregata minor
Five subspecies: aldabrensis, minor, nicolli, palmerstoni, ridgwayi

The subspecies minor and palmerstoni are represented in the Zoochat galleries.

Nomenclatural note: the reason for the apparently-inconsistent scientific name minor (when the common name is Great Frigatebird) is because the species was originally named by Gmelin in 1789 as Pelecanus minor - that is, "the smallest pelican".


F. m. aldabrensis breeds on the islands of Aldabra, Europa, and the Comoros, in the western Indian Ocean.

F. m. minor breeds in the central and eastern Indian Ocean, ranging through the southeast Asian archipelago and into the southwest Pacific Ocean.

F. m. nicolli breeds in the Trindade archipelago (Brazil), in the south Atlantic Ocean.

F. m. palmerstoni breeds on island groups throughout the west and central Pacific Ocean.

F. m. ridgwayi breeds on the Revillagigedo Islands, Cocos Island, and the Galapagos Islands, in the eastern Pacific Ocean.



Photo by @Hix in the wild, Christmas Island (Australia) - adult male of the subspecies minor.

Greater Frigatebird male - ZooChat


Photo by @Hix in the wild, Christmas Island (Australia) - adult male of the subspecies minor, showing the entirely black plumage and inflated gular pouch.

Greater Frigatebird male - ZooChat


Photo by @DaLilFishie in the wild, Queensland (Australia) - adult female of the subspecies minor.

Great Frigatebird - ZooChat


Photo by @Semioptera at Sea Life Park Hawaii (USA) - adult male of the subspecies palmerstoni.

Great Frigatebird - ZooChat


Photo by @Semioptera at Sea Life Park Hawaii (USA) - immature of the subspecies palmerstoni.

Great Frigatebird - ZooChat

 

[Chlidonias]

SULIDAE
Gannets and Boobies
Ten species in three genera, all of which are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


Morus
Northern Gannet Morus bassanus
Cape Gannet Morus capensis
Australasian Gannet Morus serrator


Papasula
Abbott's Booby Papasula abbotti


Sula
Masked Booby Sula dactylatra
Nazca Booby Sula granti
Brown Booby Sula leucogaster
Blue-footed Booby Sula nebouxii
Red-footed Booby Sula sula
Peruvian Booby Sula variegata



The sulids are medium-sized seabirds, ranging from roughly the size of a duck to that of a goose. All species are monomorphic (adult male and female birds have the same colouration), although there are often minor sexual differences in the colour of the bill or orbital skin. Juvenile and immature plumages are distinct from the adult plumages in most species.

The boobies (Sula) are mostly smaller, and tropical and subtropical in distribution, while the gannets (Morus) are much larger and live in temperate regions of both hemispheres. All species are typically coastal rather than pelagic, but are widespread throughout oceanic islands.

Formerly all species were included in a single genus (Sula).

 

[Chlidonias]

Morus
Three species, all of which are represented in the Zoochat galleries.

Northern Gannet Morus bassanus
Cape Gannet Morus capensis
Australasian Gannet Morus serrator


The Northern Gannet is found in the north Atlantic Ocean, while the other two species are found in the Southern Hemisphere (in coastal southern Africa and in Australasia, respectively). Due to how similar these three species are they have all been treated as subspecies of Morus bassanus in the past.

 

[Chlidonias]

Northern Gannet Morus bassanus
Monotypic


Breeds in the north Atlantic Ocean (off both North America and Europe); winters south, as far as the equator.



Photo by @Maguari in the wild, UK - adult breeding pair, showing how the sexes are monomorphic.

Northern Gannets at Bempton Cliffs, 22/05/17 - ZooChat


Photo by @gulogulogulo at Wilhelma Zoo (Germany) - non-breeding adult; the Northern Gannet is the only species of Morus which changes colour from non-breeding to breeding plumage - the other two species retain yellow heads year-round.

Northern gannet 031218 - ZooChat


Photo by @Lafone in the wild, UK - juvenile bird.

Gannet (wild) UK - ZooChat


Photo by @Giant Eland in the wild, USA - first-year immature bird.

northern gannet (Morus bassanus) - ZooChat


Photo by @Javan Rhino at Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary (UK) - second-year immature bird.

Northern gannet youngster - ZooChat

 

[Chlidonias]

Cape Gannet Morus capensis
Monotypic


Breeds on the coasts of South Africa and Namibia; non-breeding, ranges north to the Gulf of Guinea (on the west coast of Africa) and Mozambique (on the east coast). Vagrants are recorded occasionally in Australia and New Zealand, in both countries of which individuals have formed pairs with Australasian Gannets and produced hybrid offspring.



Photo by @Giant Eland at the World of Birds Wildlife Sanctuary and Monkey Park (South Africa) - adult bird.

Cape gannet (Morus capensis) - ZooChat


Photo by @Kudu21 at the Seabird and Penguin Rehabilitation Centre (South Africa) - immature bird (note the dark bill).

Cape Gannet - ZooChat

 

[Chlidonias]

Australasian Gannet Morus serrator
Monotypic


Breeds around the coasts of New Zealand, and southeast Australia and Tasmania.



Photo by @Chlidonias in the wild, New Zealand - adult bird.

Australasian Gannet (Morus serrator) - ZooChat


Photo by @WhistlingKite24 in the wild, New Zealand - adult bird.

Australasian Gannet - ZooChat


Photo by @Chlidonias in the wild, New Zealand - adult bird showing the long narrow wings.

Australasian Gannet (Morus serrator) - ZooChat


Photo by @Hix in the wild, Australia - juvenile bird.

Australasian Gannet (juvenile) - ZooChat

 

[Chlidonias]

Papasula
One species.

Until 1988 this species was placed in the genus Sula with the other boobies but genetic studies show it to be distinct, and it is now considered to be basal to the other Sulid genera.


The species is monomorphic apart for bill colour (grey in males and pink in females), and unusually for sulids there are no distinct juvenile or immature plumages.


Breeding now occurs only on Christmas Island (Australia) in the east Indian Ocean, although formerly much more widespread through the tropics of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The species was first collected in 1892 from Assumption Island near Madagascar, but the breeding colonies in the western Indian Ocean had all been extirpated by c.1930. Subfossil remains are known from oceanic islands in the Pacific Ocean, including the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and the Marquesas. The extinct population from the Marquesas has been described as a separate subspecies, Papasula abbotti costelloi (the name was a deliberate pun on Abbott and Costello, a famous comedy duo).



Abbott's Booby Papasula abbotti
Two subspecies - abbotti and costelloi - of which the latter is extinct.


Photo by @Hix in the wild, Christmas Island (Australia) - adult female on the nest.

Abbott's Booby on next - ZooChat


Photo by @Hix in the wild, Christmas Island (Australia) - adult female (upper) and adult male (lower); note the difference in bill colour.

Abbott's Boobys nesting, female above and a male below - ZooChat


Photo by @Hix in the wild, Christmas Island (Australia) - adult female in flight.

Abbott's Booby - ZooChat


Photo by @Hix in the wild, Christmas Island (Australia) - juvenile bird.

Abbott's Booby juvenile - ZooChat

 

[Chlidonias]

Sula
Six species, all of which are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


Masked Booby Sula dactylatra
Nazca Booby Sula granti
Brown Booby Sula leucogaster
Blue-footed Booby Sula nebouxii
Red-footed Booby Sula sula
Peruvian Booby Sula variegata



All species are tropical and subtropical. The Masked, Brown, and Red-footed Boobies are circumtropical, while the Nazca, Blue-footed, and Peruvian Boobies are restricted to the Pacific coasts of the Americas.

 

[Chlidonias]

Masked Booby Sula dactylatra
Four subspecies: dactylatra, melanops, personata, tasmani

The subspecies dactylatra, personata and tasmani are represented in the Zoochat galleries, although only the first is depicted as an adult.


S. d. dactylatra is found in the western Atlantic, breeding in the Caribbean islands, on islands off northern South America, and on Ascension Island.

S. d. melanops breeds on islands in the Red Sea and in the western Indian Ocean.

S. d. personata is the most widespread subspecies, being found from the eastern Indian Ocean and right through the Pacific Ocean to the Americas.

S. d. tasmani breeds in the north Tasman Sea (between Australia and New Zealand) on the islands of the Norfolk group, on Lord Howe Island, and on the Kermadec Islands. This subspecies was originally named from subfossil bones (as Sula tasmani) and thought to be extinct, until it was shown that the living birds were of the same taxon. S. d. fullagari is a synonym.



Photo by @TheoV at Florida Keys Wild Bird Center (USA) - adult bird of the subspecies dactylatra.

Masked booby - Florida Keys Wild Bird Center [2017] - ZooChat


Photo by @Hix at Sea Life Park Hawaii (USA) - juvenile of the subspecies personata.

Masked Booby, juvenile - 1987 - ZooChat


Photo by @Dannelboyz in the wild, Phillip Island (Australia) - fledgling of the subspecies tasmani.

Masked Booby, Sula dactylatra - ZooChat

 

[Chlidonias]

Nazca Booby Sula granti
Monotypic

Formerly treated as a subspecies of the Masked Booby Sula dactylatra but they occur sympatrically and in 1988 it was noted that they do not interbreed at mixed colonies. The Nazca Booby was elevated to a full species in 2002.



Breeds on islands off the Pacific coasts of Central and northern South America, and in the Galapagos Islands.



There is just a single photo of this species in the Zoochat galleries, and unfortunately it is a fairly distant flight shot.


Photo by @jayjds2 in the wild, Galapagos Islands - adult bird.

Nazca booby - ZooChat

 

[Chlidonias]

Brown Booby Sula leucogaster
Four subspecies: brewsteri, etesiaca, leucogaster, plotus

It has been suggested that brewsteri is a full species (including etesiaca as a subspecies). These two subspecies are particularly distinctive in that they are sexually-dimorphic in plumage, with the male having a white or pale grey head.

Three of the subspecies - etesiaca, leucogaster and plotus - are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


S. l. brewsteri breeds on islands in the Gulf of California.

S. l. etesiaca breeds on islands off the Pacific coast of Central America and northern South America.

S. l. leucogaster is found in the Caribbean and tropical Atlantic Ocean.

S. l. plotus is found from the Red Sea through the Indian Ocean to the central Pacific Ocean.



Photo by @ralph in the wild, Costa Rica - adult pair of the subspecies etesiaca; male on left and female on right. As earlier noted, in this subspecies (and in brewsteri) male birds have white or pale grey heads. The colour of the orbital skin also differs between sexes, being blue in males and yellow in females, which can be seen indistinctly in this photo.

Brown boobies - ZooChat


Photo by @toto98 at the Aviario Nacional de Colombia (Colombia) - juvenile of the subspecies etesiaca.

Brown booby (Sula leucogaster) - ZooChat


Photo by @Therabu at ZooPark de Itatiba (Brazil) - adult female of the subspecies leucogaster.

Brown booby Sula leucogaster - ZooChat


Photo by @Maguari at Busch Wildlife Sanctuary (USA) - juvenile bird of the subspecies leucogaster.

Brown Booby at Busch Wildlife Sanctuary, 14/10/13 - ZooChat


Photo by @DaLilFishie in the wild, Queensland (Australia) - pair of adult birds of the subspecies plotus, with the male on the left (with blue facial skin) and female on the right (with yellow facial skin).

Brown Booby - ZooChat


Photo by @DaLilFishie in the wild, Queensland (Australia) - adult male of the subspecies plotus, showing the blue facial skin.

Brown Booby - ZooChat


Photo by @WhistlingKite24 in the wild, Queensland (Australia) - adult female of the subspecies plotus in flight, showing the underwing pattern.

Brown Booby - ZooChat


Photo by @Hix in the wild, Christmas Island (Australia) - immature bird of the subspecies plotus.

Brown Booby immature - ZooChat


Photo by @WhistlingKite24 in the wild, Queensland (Australia) - chick of the subspecies plotus.

Brown Booby chick - ZooChat

 

[Chlidonias]

Blue-footed Booby Sula nebouxii
Two subspecies: excisa and nebouxii

Both subspecies are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


S. n. excisa is endemic to the Galapagos Islands.

S. n. nebouxii is found on the Pacific coast of the Americas, from the Gulf of California to Peru.



Photo by @AWP in the wild, Galapagos Islands (Ecuador) - adult birds of the subspecies excisa.

Blue-footed Boobies - ZooChat


Photo by @AWP at Bioparque Amaru (Ecuador) - adult birds of (I think) the subspecies nebouxii. The distinguishing features of the two subspecies are apparently that the nominate nebouxii is smaller and darker than the Galapagos excisa. In this photo the female bird is on the right - the sexes can be told apart by the appearance of the pupil, with it seeming to be much larger than in the male.

Blue-footed Boobies - ZooChat


Photo by @David Matos Mendes in the wild, Peru - juvenile bird of the subspecies nebouxii.

Peruvian booby - Port of Paracas - ZooChat