Double-crested Cormorant

Here's a Double-crested Cormorant I saw back in June. Some of my sources (field guides and online) suggest that these guys are only here during migration while others say they can be here all year. I'm not sure if this fella was just a late migrator or if this is where he's spending the summer. I suspect a few stay in New Jersey for the summer even though most of them are up north.

As always, you can see the cormorant swims much lower in the water compared to the duck/goose community. You can see the back is just barely above water. It's easy to think that by being less buoyant than ducks helps cormorants in their specialty: deep diving in water in search of food. (There are ducks that will submerge completely, though I'll bet they can't keep up with their cormorant neighbors when it comes to depth.)

June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve
Photo 141959702, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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