brandt's cormorant

One of the only birds around here with blue eyes. Finally was able to get a photo of one in alternate plumage.

In breeding season it's a good deal easier to tell the various California coast cormorants apart, thanks to their distinctive white patches and plumes. When those aren't visible, you have to rely on size (hard to judge at a distance and when they're not side by side), location (but those...

Solo cormorant surveying the prospects along California coast.

Here's another Brandt's. This one has almost no "sidebeards" (yet?), but a fuller pair of white "epaulets". Their Latin name has nothing to do with penicillin, by the way. It's from the Latin for paintbrush and refers to these breeding season plumes on the Brandt's neck and back.

I guess the "black is beautiful" slogan never made it through to the cormorant world. Today's set is three cormorants (two species) showing how they put on a show of whiteness during the breeding season. Here's one Brandt's Cormorant showing off his white "sidebeards". They...

Not my best quality pics today. The first two were taken looking down at the Bay from about 65 meters up on the Golden Gate Bridge. This one is a raft of Brandt's Cormorants that seem to be surfing on a wake, perhaps from a ship that just passed through the shipping lane.

Of course, for me there were other "main attractions". I'd been told there would be Pelagic Cormorants at the cove. That would have been my lifer for the day. But no. Only double-cresteds and Brandt's. Oh well. Still worth several hundred shots ;) What caught my eye with this one was...

Not a great shot. I kept waiting for this cormy to move in closer to shore, but that would only happen if the fish he was hunting did the same and apparently they didn't. Instead, he eventually moved out to the open sea. Still, in this shot the blue patch under his chin was visible, and ID forum...

On July 1 at Lake Chabot and again July 3 at SF Bay, I saw a cormorant behaving in a way I hadn't seen earlier - an extended splashing and flapping before doing a shallow dive. Is this a bathing behaviour? Trying to wash between its feathers? Or do some cormies dive this way when fishing? The...

Here's a cropped picture of the previous shot.

There is an interesting overlap of waders, sea birds, and birds of prey. Here's a Brandt's Cormorant colony with a Great Egret.

Mostly Brant's Cormorants with Brown Pelicans and California sealions. Loads of wildlife in and around Monterey Bay, this is taken of the harbour entrance.

A beautiful day at the slough. These Brandt's are in their breeding plumage.

Brandt's Cormorants' courtship display.

breeding plumage.

Front and back views of Phalacrocorax penicillatus at La Jolla, CA, 02-12-02, with the Pacific Ocean in the background.The bird on the right exhibits the blue throat pouch typical during breeding months.