Mystery Bird: Double-crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus

ummm, Grrl, think I have this one... how long should I wait? *smile*

well, ideally, i would like you to wait 24 hours and to help less experienced birders to make their IDs while you wait, but that's probably not fair to you, is it? so maybe waiting just six hours before you share your ID is good enough.

No problem Grrl... just so you know, as there appears to be another David posting only as "David", I'm going to have to throw caution to the wind...

David (Hilmy)

Well, I'm probably as "less experienced" as they come, so I'll give it a try. First, that's a beautiful, amazing photo. Second, I'm totally befuddled.

I narrowed it to three groupings: fishing raptor, landing duck, landing other water bird. I can't tell if the feet are webby or not (if raptor feet, they're open for an attempt at fishing), and it looks like there's the slightest hint of a crest at the back of the head (or neck?)

Raptor: the fishing ones I think of are the osprey and a couple eagles. (There are probably others?) It doesn't look like either an osprey because it's not got a light underside. But the posture seems raptorish to me. Okay, colorwise, it could be an immature bald eagle? But I'd expect yellow feet. Same for a Golden Eagle.

Ducks: Duck wings seem way narrower and pointy, and the shape of the body seems bigger in comparison when I see them land.

Other birds: for color and somewhat broader wing shape, a cormorant seems a possibility. But the wing shape doesn't quite seem right. And I'd sort of expect to see the head because of the longer neck?

The more I look the more wrong I feel.

Bardiac, from what I have observed, the trailing tail just prior to the feet "waterskiing" is characteristic of this genus of birds landing on water; there are three species possible in this area of the Pacific Coast (finding "Whittier Narrows" in California was a test in of itself!)

thanks, bardiac. i'll let others help you, but i just wanted to mention that i really appreciate reading the thought process that beginning birders go through when presented with a new image/bird to ID .. it reminds me of my own travails with trying to learn a new language.

(speaking of which; my audiofy chips for my complete pimsleur german language course just arrived in the mail -- at long last! will update you about my progress now that i have something to work with, but i still have some writing projects i am working on these next few days before i make a devoted effort to begin learning german).

Hm. Given that I routinely guess wrong, maybe I don't have to worry about guessing too soon? :-)

For me, the process went like this:

* Oh, look. A cormorant. (It probably helps that we have several cormorants around here, including the one that I think this one is, and I watch them taking off and landing all the time.)

* Hm. Which one? Double-crested is my usual default for a southern California cormorant, and this one certainly seems like a decent match for that, but what do the range maps say? What does a careful look at you-know-who's book say?

* Oh, Whittier Narrows is inland (somewhat, at least). Range maps in Sibley push me much more strongly in the direction of Double-crested.

* How's that tail length? Yeah, looks pretty good for Double-crested.

* Q.E.D.: Double-crested Cormorant (if not proven, at least close enough for me to take my chances).

Hmmmm...I saw this and immediately thought duck, but after looking more closely, I too think the wings don't seem long enough/pointy enough. So then I thought cormorant, but the animals' body dosen't seem long enough and the color no quite right for a cormorant, but they do often 'ski' in for a landing. Most wading birds have thinner legs, so that seems wrong too. I can find points that I would use as reference for ID, but I can't seem to bring them all together to identify a single species. GRRRRRR...I guess I would guess at some kind of duck species, probably a dabbling duck, either female, immature or in eclipse plummage.

The waterskiing landing indicates a cormorant, with the tail feathers braking, characteristic.

There are three species of Cormorant that could be found along the California Pacific coast: Pelagic, Brandtâs, and Double-crested.

I think we can discount the Pelagic Cormorant because it would present as being a lot more sleek looking with a relatively longer tail as compared to body length, so we are left with either Brandtâs or the Double-crested.

Without a view of the throat, the âbulkinessâ of the image above suggests Double-crested. Further, I understand that in Winter, the Double-crested shows a brownish cast to itâs plumage whereas the other species (unless juveniles) are glossy black, even in low-light (Dave Irons, Birdfellow Journal, Cormorants Unveiled, March 16, 2009).

Even though Whittier Narrows is inland (I am assuming probably Legg Lake, South El Monte, Los Angeles County), all three species ranges are indeed recorded for Los Angeles County, however I have found no reports from fishermen nor the CA Department of Fish and Game for any cormorant species other than the Double-crested being present at Legg Lake (actually a string of 3 fresh-water lakes inside Whittier Narrows Park connected by small canals, stocked with sizeable carp, summer catfish, and winter rainbow trout) which supports the contention that Pelagic and Brandtâs confine themselves to marine locations but that the Double-crested will take anywhere from ocean to swamp (David Sibley Bird Life & Behavior), so I am siding with Mr. Callender.

There are four subspecies of the Double-crested recognized:

cincinatus, Aleutian Islands to Alexander Archipelago in western Canada; albociliatus, Vancouver Island to the Gulf of California; auritus, Gulf of St Lawrence to Cape Cod and west to Utah; and floridanus, North Carolina and Florida south to Cuba.

So this is a Double-crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus albociliatus

There is an interesting Cormorant ID Challenge photo comprising a group of nine mixed Pelagic, Brandtâs, and Double-crested Cormorants which helps with throat-visible and relative size when perched silhouettes but alas not with throat-hidden waterskiing (an intriguing note was the comment at #7 concerning the âhen-peckâ order- I also favor his id.)

No confirmation from GrrlScientist yet, but I'll go along with David Hilmy's identification, if one is to trust the "brownish cast" that is apparently characteristic of winter plumage. I've seen a lot of double-crested cormorants, though I've yet to see an adult with such dun-colored plumage (they're usually full black). I will admit to a first thought of "Canada Goose" when presented with the black webbed feet and that color plumage on the wings (I live in Seattle - many Canada geese), but the skidding of the tail made me wonder, as well as the shape of the wings and the difference in the coloring on the tail. Meh, I'm not even an amateur.