Quantcast

Double-crested Cormorant

Phalacrocorax auritusOrder: PELECANIFORMESFamily: Cormorants (Phalacrocoracidae)

Double-crested Cormorant Portrait
  Copyright 2002-2007 Whatbird.com
Click here for licensing information Splitbar

General

Double-crested Cormorant: Medium-sized cormorant with iridescent black body and orange throat pouch. Western birds have white feather tufts over each eye in early summer. Sexes are similar. Juvenile is brown with buff upper belly and neck, and scaled or mottled upperparts.

Range and Habitat

Double-crested Cormorant: Breeds locally from Alaska, Manitoba, and Newfoundland south to Mexico and Bahamas. Spends winters mainly on coasts north to Alaska and southern New England. Preferred habitats include lakes, rivers, swamps, and coasts.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"grunt"

Interesting Facts

 The oldest documented wild Double-crested Cormorant lived to be seventeen years, nine months. The average lifespan of wild birds is about six years.

 Captive birds will perch to dry their wings after eating, even if they have not gotten wet.

 Due to significant population increase and range expansion, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published an Environmental Impact Statement on managing Double-crested Cormorant populations in 2003.

 A group of cormorants has many collective nouns, including a "flight", "gulp", "rookery", "sunning", and "swim" of cormorants.



Author

Gary Owen Dick

Splitbar
Range Map for Double-crested Cormorant
.
Bird database and its related content, illustrations and media is Copyright © 2002 - 2007  Whatbird.com
All rights reserved. No part of this web site may be reproduced without written permission from Mitch Waite Group.
 Privacy Policy.
Percevia® Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family Cormorant (Phalacrocoracidae)_blue
Species Phalacrocorax auritus
Length32 Inches
Wingspan52 Inches

Double-crested Cormorant

Double-crested Cormorant: Medium cormorant with iridescent black body and orange throat pouch. Western birds have white feather tufts over each eye in early summer. Pale bill is long and hooked. Black legs and feet. Feeds on fish, amphibians and crustaceans. Strong direct flight, soars on thermals.

● Song: "grunt"

● Foraging & Feeding: Double-crested Cormorant: Diet consists mostly of fish, but also eats crustaceans and amphibians. Forages by diving from the surface and swimming underwater to catch prey, propelled by its webbed feet, not wings.

● Breeding & nesting: Double-crested Cormorant: Male has an elaborate courtship dance in which he presents the female with material to build a nest or marks out a nesting site. Two pale blue eggs are laid in a nest built of twigs or seaweed. Incubation ranges from 28 to 30 days and is carried out by both parents.

● Similar species: Double-crested Cormorant: Loons lack hooked bills. Neotropical Cormorant is slimmer and longer-tailed, and has a differently shaped gular area. Great Cormorant has a yellow, pointed gular area surrounded with white.

Flight Pattern

Strong powerful direct flight.
Double-crested Cormorant Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Double-crested Cormorant: Breeds locally from Alaska, Manitoba, and Newfoundland south to Mexico and Bahamas. Spends winters mainly on coasts north to Alaska and southern New England. Preferred habitats include lakes, rivers, swamps, and coasts.
BreedingMonogamous, Colonial
Population
MigrationMigratory
Weight64 Ounces