Birds:
Links:
http://www.e-nature.org
http://www.enature.com
http://www.landbirds.com
http://birds.fws.gov
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Birds:
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Common Name: Double-crested Cormorant | ||||
| Species: Phalacrocorax auritus | |||||
| Type: Waterfowl | |||||
| Description: The cormorant is a large bird with a length 74-89 centimeters. The wingspan is about 50 centimeters.The Cormorant is a dark water bird with a long hooked bill and a long tail, a long thin neck and also an orange area around its bill. This bird has a entirely black plumage and black legs and feet. They have small white plumes on head during breeding season. | Habitat: All these birds are found around marine and inland water. | ||||
| Food: Frequently they spend the time on rivers and coasts and swim slow in the water and do not spend a lot of time in the water except for feeding. The majority of their diet consist on fish that’s one their plate of the menu. Cormorants dive and catch their prey underwater. | Enemies: May be killed by fisherman because of competition. Their populations were hit hard by DDT in the 1960s and 70s. | ||||
| Range & migration: Breeds locally from southwestern Alaska and the interior of North America to the Golf of St. Lawrence and southern Newfoundland, south to the southern of United States and the Bahamas. Most of the birds in Atlantic Canada breed in the western Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the Atlantic coast of mainland Nova Scotia. Winters from the southern parts of its summer range south to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. Also the Cormorant is fund in Virginia and West Virginia they habit in lakes and rivers. | Reproduction: Cormorants breed in colonies of up to three thousand pairs. The males have elaborate courtship dances, including dances in the water where he presents the female with material to build a nest. The male will also dance to mark out a nesting site for the couple. They will lose its double crest on the crown after pairing. The eggs of cormorants are about two and one-half inches long and pale bluish-white in color with a chalky coating. A clutch is usually 2-4. Both parents incubate and feed the young. The young are covered in black down. The young are fed about six times a day by their parents. They first fly at 35-42 days but are not comletely independent for 63-70 days. | ||||
| More information: | Links: http://www.e-nature.org |
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