Double-crested cormorant

by Elizabeth Winter

Title

Double-crested cormorant

Artist

Elizabeth Winter

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Adult Double-crested Cormorants are black or dark brown and have an orange-yellow patch of skin at the base of their bills. In breeding plumage, adults have two whitish tufts behind their eyes, hence the description 'double-crested.' First-year birds are pale on the upper breast and darker on the belly. Double-crested Cormorants have slender, hook-tipped bills that are often tipped up at an angle as they swim.

Double-crested Cormorants are permanent residents on the coasts and in Puget Sound. Migrants east of the Cascades depart in October and return in March. Some migrants move to the coast from inland areas

Numbers declined dramatically in the 1960s and 1970s due to contaminants acquired from fish. Since the ban of DDT, populations have been increasing. Double-crested Cormorants are sensitive to human disturbance to colonies, and they are often persecuted as predators of commercial fish at hatcheries. El Niņo events reduce the number of breeding pairs as well as the reproductive success of breeders. Although the Washington population along the outer coast increased slightly from 1978 to 1994, it has declined since 1995, most likely because of unfavorable ocean conditions.

Uploaded

November 20th, 2016

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