Cormorants at Wakodahatchee
Below are some of the photos I took of the cormorants at Wakodahatchee Wetlands on February 4, 2012. I am not sure of the ID of all of them, but the labels are my best guess. The first photo shows a smaller Neotropic Cormorant on the right. Note that it even has some white auricular plumes. The larger bird lacks the yellow or orange lores that would be expected of a Double-crested Cormorant, and I suspect it is a hybrid.
The second photo shows the yellow lores on a Double-crested Cormorant nestling for comparison.
The third photo includes the bird that brought us all to Wakodahatchee today on the left. It seems to be a Neotropic Cormorant. The other bird is a bit harder to understand. It has the pointy gular of a Neotropic, and lacks the yellow lores of a Double-crested. However, if it is a Neotropic, a bird old enough to be this dark should have a white border to the gular, which this bird lacks. Perhaps it is a hybrid.
The final photo shows a nest (just to the right of the pair in the first photo) where all of the birds below lack the yellow in front of the eye expected of Double-crested Cormorants. Are they young Neotropic Cormorants? Or some sort of hybrid? Or just Double-crested without the yellow mark? Note that they too are dark, like the right bird in the third photo. The bird above has a lighter bill, and just a hint of a yellow spot (visible in a photo not included below).
Click on the thumbnail images to see a larger version.
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| Hybrid (?) and Neotropic Cormorants | Double-crested Cormorant Nestling |
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| Neotropic and Hybrid (??) Cormorants | Possible Neotropic or Hybrid Cormorant Nestlings? |