Masked Booby or Immature Gannet?

[Mush 7]

Hello,

After reviewing my photos from my seawatch at Cape Canaveral in Florida today, I found this bird. I remember when I first saw it, it looked smaller than a northern gannet, and was oddly heading out to sea, unlike all the gannets who were heading south. Its flight pattern seemed to be a bit different too. The wings match a masked booby (black sleeves), and so does the tail, but I don't see the mask. Also, the head is not yellow like a gannet, but that might just be the quality of the photo.

[Mush 7]

I took this picture of an immature gannet today as well, so I am assuming that that bird is just an immature gannet. The distance might have made it seem smaller than what it was.

[Aaron 631]

Looks good for an immature Northern gannet. In time, the black will recede to only the wing tips 

Only similar bird would be a masked booby, but I think it’s the wrong time of year and they would not show the yellow tinge on the head nor have such a muddled appearance without at least some brown on the head

[Connor Cochrane 2,624]

That bird looks like a Booby feel to me. Head shape and bill look better for Booby to me, but I very well could be wrong.

[DLecy 455]

All birds in this photo are NOGAs. An immature MABO would have brown on the head and mottling on the neck. The wing pattern suggests adult MABO, but this is a subadult bird. Also, not the hint of warm tones on the nape, and the silvery bill. MABO bill would be yellow, even in juvenile plumage it would have green/yellow hues.

[DLecy 455]

My bad. I was referring to your second photo and some how didn't see the first. The first has a MABO feel to it and the plumage pattern "seems" right but it's a tough photo to gauge. Plus, the bill appears kind of blunt and silvery-blue which would point to NOGA, but that also could just be a result of the distance and blur in the photo.

[Aaron 631]

For Some reason I thought both birds were the same bird. I guess I should learn to read.

I was looking at bad photos (no offense 😂) of masked boobies and the majority of them the mask is noticeable. So it appears as if though we should be able see it from this angle and quality. Yet I did come across a few with relatively no mask at all. 
Though, I still don’t think that bill is yellow enough. 
I guess we need Tony or somebody to weigh in 

[Tony Leukering 2,531]

NOGA can closely match MABO plumage, though it is the rare individual that looks like this, as most NOGA have replaced black secondaries with at least a few white ones in this plumage. The photo is just not of enough quality to be certain either way.

[Mush 7]

Thanks for the help everyone. It seems my second photo that I posted in order to help everyone just seemed to confuse people oops! I just posted it on eBird as sulid sp. So hopefully an eBird reviewer can help clear things up. I'm still leaning towards gannet since I cannot see that mask, but I may be mistaken.