stevethehydra
Well-known member
I saw this cormorant that stood out from others yesterday at a fishing club site in Stockport (unfortunately a fenced-off site where you can only get glimpses through trees of the actual water and birds on it, so branches in the foreground made clear photos difficult). Then I happened to see this: Chapter 6: Paradise regained - The Sound Approach
This individual was one of the whitest-headed cormorants I've seen, and the only one there with any white on the head. It also looked a bit smaller and more "compact" in build than the other cormorant on the same artificial island, and I thought possibly shorter-billed (though this could be an illusion of viewing angles). So I wondered if it might be a different subspecies - but if I'm interpreting the images at that link correctly, its gular pouch looks like carbo rather than sinensis, which is what the other features supposedly point towards?
I'm a bit skeptical about cormorants being identifiable to subspecies in general, but any thoughts?
This individual was one of the whitest-headed cormorants I've seen, and the only one there with any white on the head. It also looked a bit smaller and more "compact" in build than the other cormorant on the same artificial island, and I thought possibly shorter-billed (though this could be an illusion of viewing angles). So I wondered if it might be a different subspecies - but if I'm interpreting the images at that link correctly, its gular pouch looks like carbo rather than sinensis, which is what the other features supposedly point towards?
I'm a bit skeptical about cormorants being identifiable to subspecies in general, but any thoughts?
