Double-crested Cormorant

Phalacrocorax auritusOrder: PELECANIFORMES Family: Cormorants (Phalacrocoracidae)

Codes: Common Name: DCCO Scientific Name: PHAAUT ITIS Taxonomic No.: 174717

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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.

Topo Map: Upright-perching Water-like Body

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.

Bird Term Glossary

Author

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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.

Double-crested Cormorant

● 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

Upright-perching Water-like Body

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America