June Tveekrem wrote:
> This afternoon in Howard County I photographed what I thought was a
> Double-crested Cormorant, but it looks a little weird. What's with the
> white line behind the orange/red area on the chin? I don't think it's
> a trick of the light, because it shows up at different sun angles.
>
> Photos are posted at
> http://birds.southernspreadwing.com/maryland/
> Click on "Unusual or non-identified birds" from the menu on the left.
>
I took the liberty of changing the subject line because after about a
half hour of work I am not certain of the identity of this bird. The
white line bordering the gular patch on that bird is the textbook mark
for Neotropic Cormorant, but there are some things that bother me.
First, the line is uncharacteristically narrow and doesn't show the
usual backward point. Second, to my somewhat undereducated eye the bird
looks to me to have the general head size/shape of a Double-crested
Cormorant. The issues are 1) how much variation in the white there is
in Neotropic; 2) whether the bird possibly has some immature plumage
left; and 3) if the bird is in changing plumage whether there is ever a
narrow white line in the corresponding plumage of Double-crested
Cormorant. A look through some of the pictures found from a Google
search found birds that look like this one that were identified as
Double-crested and several birds from the range of Neotropic,
identified as Neotropic, that also looked rather similar.
I will be very interested in the comments this bird attracts. You might
want to give a more specific location in case anyone wishes to look for
it. If no one more knowledgeable than I gives a good argument for the
identity of the bird, it might be worthwhile to get the pictures looked
at by someone who regularly sees both species together.
--
Maurice Barnhill
[Use ReplyTo, not From]
[bellatlantic.net is reserved for spam only]
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716 |