Large, heavy-bodied seabird with a hefty yellow bill. Adults are all white with black primaries and secondaries and a black tail. Note black mask.
Large, heavy-bodied seabird with a hefty yellow (greenish yellow on Juveniles) bill. Juveniles have a brownish head and neck, a dark back, and a white belly.
Flies on long stiff wings. Note black primaries, secondaries, and tail feathers.
Immatures have a mottled brown and white neck and back. Note mostly white underwings in flight.
Immatures have brownish mottling on the head and back with a distinct white collar.
Click on an image to compare
A heavyset seabird with long, pointed wings, stout neck and head, and fairly long, pointed tail. It has short legs with large, webbed feet. The bill is long, heavy, and daggerlike.
Larger than a Great Black-backed Gull, smaller than a Northern Gannet.
goose-sized or largerMasked Booby has about five subspecies that vary in size and in the colors of bills, eyes, legs, and feet. In eastern North America (Caribbean and Atlantic waters), the subspecies dactylatra has straw-colored bill and usually olive or orangish legs and feet, whereas in California the widespread Pacific subspecies personata has a yellow bill and bluish-gray or olive legs and feet. Other subspecies include melanops of the western Indian Ocean, bedouti of the eastern Indian Ocean, and tasmani of the Tasman Sea.
Need Bird ID Help? Try Merlin
The Cornell Lab will send you updates about birds,
birding, and opportunities to help bird conservation.
