The gannet (morus bassanus) is the largest of all North Atlantic sea birds. With piercing blue eyes and a golden head, these large birds are a magnificent sight around Iceland’s coasts in the summer months. In fact Iceland has some of the most important nesting sites with Eldey, a large sea stack 14 km south west of the Reykjanes peninsula, being home to the third largest breeding colony in the world. (Eldey is notorious as the place where in 1844 two Icelanders, Jón Brandsson and Sigurđur Isleifsson, killed the last remaining pair of great auks.)
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