possible brown booby in New Jersey, very bad photos (1 Viewer)

[tom baxter]

can anyone confirm? or is it not possible to rule out a gannet?

 

[rollingthunder]

Which way is it flying

Laurie:t:

 

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

can anyone confirm? or is it not possible to rule out a gannet?

Probably risky to rule out anything, but certainly ticks all the boxes for BB

 

[njlarsen]

I can definitely not rule out a BrBo from these, but it’s difficult to say for sure that it couldn’t be anything else. How rare are these in NJ?

Niels

 

[dantheman]

As per discussion (on here?), 1st winter Gannet can occasionally look extremely similar. As a rarity might just have to be one that got away ...

 

[Birdbrain22]

njlarsen....Brown Bobbies are very occasionally reported from NJ...

however...with these photos(no offense intended tom) I am afraid it is too hard to say it is a Brown Bobby over a much more likely young Northern Gannet.

 

[tom baxter]

I can definitely not rule out a BrBo from these, but it’s difficult to say for sure that it couldn’t be anything else. How rare are these in NJ?

Niels

Quite rare but annual. There have been a few reports by the local sea watch, coming all from a particular magician of a birder. The reports were of birds out over the open ocean and during migration so it’s unlikely this is the same individual.

 

[tom baxter]

As per discussion (on here?), 1st winter Gannet can occasionally look extremely similar. As a rarity might just have to be one that got away ...

At this point I could add to the discussion, for what it’s worth, at a great distance on a rocking boat, it immediately and continuously rejected the notion of northern gannet to me. I was the only person who saw the bird. The bold contrast pattern suggested by all of the photos consistently was evident to me in the field although the distance made it difficult to precisely ascertain the pattern. It did look clean cut as far as I could tell.