Double-crested Cormorant

Phalacrocorax auritusOrder: PELECANIFORMESFamily: Cormorants (Phalacrocoracidae)
Double-crested Cormorant Portrait
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Range Map for Double-crested Cormorant

Overview

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.

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.

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Listen:

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Voice Text

"grunt"

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Related Birds:

Brown Pelican
Brandt's Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Anhinga
Red-faced Cormorant
Neotropic Cormorant
.

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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