While shooting American White Pelicans on Wednesday, I also had a small group of Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) fly in and land in front of me. The DC Cormorant is another migrating bird that I enjoy photographing. When in the water, it often swims with only it’s long neck and head out of the water. This bird feeds by diving and swimming after fish underwater; once a catch is made, it surfaces with the fish. Because the fish is often “sideways” in the cormorant’s mouth, it sometimes struggles to get it turned around so that it can swallow the fish. Often, the cormorant will throw the fish into the air a little ways, trying to get it to line up so it can be swallowed … very interesting to watch this bird!
As this group of DC Cormorants flew in, I singled one out of the group and followed it as it approached and landed in the water. Here are a few images I made of this bird:
And in this final image, you can see the “double crests” from which the Double-crested Cormorant gets it’s name. These crests are grown in breeding season and are usually very difficult to see. But the wind was helping me out by making the crests blow in the wind:
