Clipboard : Breeding Bird: DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT

(Phalacrocorax auritus)

Description: A large, blackish-green water bird, the cormorant has green eyes and a yellow-orange throat and face skin. The bill is slender and hook-tipped. Legs and webbed feet are black. Adults are alike. Breeding adult has a double crest of white tufts curving from behind eyes. Immature birds are brown overall with pale chest, upper breast and neck. Length: 32 inches. Wingspan: 52 inches.

Habitat: Coastal ledges, shore rocks, lakes, rivers.

Diet: Primarily schooling fish.

Displays: Male rapidly pursues female in water, splashing forcefully with both wings; swimming until his head is submerged, he dives, then surfaces holding vegetation that he drops near female or tosses in air.

Nest: Platform of sticks, seaweed and other drift materials on seaward-sloping ledges. Lined with fine grasses. Nests are built either on the ground or in a tree, but never both within the same colony.

Eggs: Light blue or bluish-white. Length: 2 1/3 inches.

Call: Silent except for occasional low grunts in nesting colonies.

Notes: Often stands erect on rocks, neck forming an “S,” with wings spread out to dry. Swims low in water with bill tilted upward; catches fish by “swimming” just below water surface. Eyes are adapted for both aerial and underwater vision.

Breeding bird atlas: To report bird-breeding activity in your neighborhood, or to get information on the breeding bird atlas, call Sea and Sage Audubon Society members Sylvia Gallagher, (714) 962-8990, or Nancy Kenyon, (714) 786-3160.

Note: Map is divided into 5-kilometer squares so that Audubon Society volunteers can more easily survey areas on a regular basis.

Sources: Sea and Sage Audubon Society; “The Birder’s Handbook,” Ehrlich, Dobkin and Wheye, Fireside Books (1988); “Field Guide to the Birds of North America,” National Geographic Society (1987); “Birds of Southern California: Status and Distribution,” Garrett and Dunn, Los Angeles Audubon Society (1981).

Indicates 5-kilometer-square areas where breeding activity has been confirmed.