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Critter of the Week:

Double-crested Cormorant
Scientific name: Phalacrocorax auritusss

The double-crested cormorant adult has a long black body with an orange skin pouch just below a long hook-tipped bill. The cormorant is a type of diving sea bird that can reach up to 35 inches in length. Juvenile birds are brownish with a whitish breast. The double crest from the name refers to a pair of white tufts behind the eyes that are only acquired during breeding season.
The double-crested cormorant is the most generally distributed cormorant in North America. In most areas, it is the only cormorant that is likely to be seen inland. These birds are seen in large numbers sitting upright on snags over water, flying, or swimming. They are very adaptable, and are found near; coasts, bays, rivers, lakes, swamps and reservoirs. They also thrive on northern rocky coasts or small inland ponds.
The cormorant diet consists of fish and other aquatic life, and can change depending on the season and their location. They eat a wide variety of fish, crabs, shrimp, crayfish, frogs, salamanders, eels, mollusks, plant material, and sometimes snakes. Cormorants forage mostly by diving from the surface of the water and swimming underwater. They use their feet and sometimes their wings to propel themselves through the water. They may forage alone or in groups.
Some individuals in Florida and on the Pacific coast are permanent residents, but most are migratory they migrate in flocks, usually following coastlines or rivers. In early spring through May they travel northward to breeding colonies along ocean, Great lake coasts, and the St. Lawrence Seaway. Most of their summer breeding grounds are in the central northern United States and Canada. These birds fly mostly by day, but sometimes at night. They can be seen migrating in a v- shaped flocks, usually containing under 200 individuals. However, flocks having over 1000 individuals have been documented. In October and November the migrating cormorants leave their summer breeding grounds and spend the winter along the Pacific coast from temperate Alaska to Mexico, and also along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from North Carolina to the West Indies. They also travel to inland sites along rivers and lakes northward to Indiana.
Cormorants first breed around the age of 3. The male displays to a potential female mate on the water by splashing with his wings and swimming in zig-zags. He also dives and brings up pieces of weeds to present to the female. The nest is mostly built by the female with some materials provided by the male. Near the nest, the male will display himself by crouching and vibrating his wings while calling. The nest is built near water on a cliff ledge on the ground or in a tree. The nest is mostly made of a platform of sticks and debris lined with finer materials. The eggs are a bluish-white color and are incubated by both parents. The number of eggs can vary between 3-4 or 1-7. The eggs take 25-30 days to hatch and then both parents fed the young. After 3-4 weeks the young may leave the nest and explore the colony, but will return to be fed. They can usually fly by week 6 and are mostly independent by week 10.
The double-crested cormorant can be observed on the water or flying above Harvey County East lake. Visit East lake to do some bird watching, and catch sight or the cormorants, pelicans, gulls and bald eagles. ... See moreSee less