This northern gannet is an avian influenza ‘survivor’ – how do I know, well it’s all in the eyes… please read on. Back in 2023 I published the post ‘A Gannetry’ telling of my visits to Newfoundland’s Cape St. Mary’s in 2022 and 2023. In that post I mentioned about the population being devastated by an outbreak of avian influenza the previous year and since that time some study results have been published and it was reported that in 2022 only 17% of nests at the site resulted in successfully seeing chicks fledge. This alarming loss of 83% of chicks (plus hundreds of adults) was thought to be down to avian influenza. This disease amongst bird populations worldwide is ongoing, fortunately, in Newfoundland at least, numbers are on the rebound and fewer birds were reported infected this year. But one amazing fact that I’ve recently learned is that researcher’s studies of ‘bird flu’ have identified that northern gannet survivors of the disease often have black eyes instead of the more common slate grey/blue colouration as seen below.
