Here along the coast of Yucatán, México, one challenge in the winter is to distinguish our permanent resident Neotropic Cormorants from Double-crested ones, most of which are non-breeding winter visitors. Today I got a shot of the two species side-by-side. The color differences are not dependable, but the Neotropic is consistently smaller, and the posterior edge of the Neotropic's gular skin is pointed, while in the Double-crested it's not. In the Neotropic, often the gular skin is bordered with a thin or pale line, which is just forming in this individual.
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Neotropic & Double-crested Cormorants side by side (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter lagartos
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Nutcracker
Stop Brexit!
Also obvious here, Neotropical's yellow is only below the eye, whereas D-c has yellow in front of / above the eye as well, in two areas separated by a darker loral line :t:
TLeukering
Well-known member
Actually, a small percentage of Neotropics have some orange in the supraloral area, many immature Double-cresteds have white bordering the bare skin at the gape and below, and this Neotropic doesn't seem to have quite the angled gape to which I'm accustomed.
DC with white by gape
DC with white by gape
Typical gape angle of Neotrop
Neotrop with orange in the supraloral area; note that the text of the article has the top and bottom right pictures mixed up
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DarkFireFalcon
Well-known member
What about the shape of the scapular feathers on the back. Don't they look better for Neotropic?
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