Sulidae
family of birds
The bird family Sulidae comprises the gannets and boobies. Collectively called sulids, they are medium-large coastal seabirds that plunge-dive for fish and similar prey. The 11 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 distinguished via morphological, behavioral, and DNA sequence characters. Abbott's booby (Papasula) is given its own genus, as it stands apart from both in these respects. It appears to be a distinct and ancient lineage, maybe closer to the gannets than to the true boobies.
Description
Sulids measure about 60 to 85 cm (24 to 33 in) in length and have a wingspan around 140 to 175 cm (4.59 to 5.74 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, as an adaptive trade-off relative to some sacrifice in flight performance. Consequently, they are very streamlined, reducing drag, so their bodies are "torpedo-shaped" and somewhat flat.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q208492. The Library of Congress control number is sh85130322. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sulidae” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.