WaterfowlForum.Net

Hi all,

Can anyone help identifying the bird in the attached photo. I can't seem to find it anywhere.

Those look to be cormorants. Not legal for harvest in most, if not all, states.

Thanks. I'm not hunting, so no worry there. Just looking for identification for photos I have taken.

Photo taken in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Those are the nastiest waterfowl. They destroy good habitat. We hates em. Gollum.
They eat fish. Likes em wet meat wiggly.

Yes, those are cormorants though I've witnessed plenty of hunters mistake them for Canada geese.

Common cormoran here in Denmark we call them eel crows, and they are not legal to hunt around here.

There are a lot of sites, but I like this.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Double-crested_Cormorant/

Very common and expanding rapidly.

They also have a link to help ID birds that I have had good luck with.

Known locally as Water Turkeys here, and their numbers are getting out of control. Some of the inland lakes that used to be known for consistent bream and crappie fishing, has just about been depleted by the fish eating bastages. They will load up in the old Cypress trees and and gorge themselves all day long on the bass, bream and crappie. Very few people are fond of them
Years ago i was pulling a shrimp net for bait down near Gulf Shores. The water was crystal clear and I watched a damn cormorant dive, swim into my net while I was pulling, grab a pogie, and swim out.........couldn't believe how strong they were underwater. Did you know that they migrate? My stepson "found" one dead on the side of a creek in our delta, and it had a band. It had been banded in MN if I remember correctly, and surprised me that they actually migrated.

Deltaman wrote:Did you know that they migrate?

Yep. They are all over the place up north. Obviously not there when you can ice skate.

I had never seen one in PA when I was growing up on the Susquehanna river. They are a common sight when I go back home. All over the place in Illinois as well.

Some places are finally starting to allow you to hunt them. The are out of control a lot of places.

A few years ago I was fishing from the shore in Lake Michigan. I caught a decent smallmouth but a little under the size limit. Hooked him pretty bad and didn't think he would make it. I let him go and he swam off. "Hey maybe he will make it." A few minutes later a cormorant swims by. Down he goes and pops back up with my smallmouth in his beak He definitely did not make. At least it was one that was going to die anyways.

The size of the fish they can eat is amazing. It's like a snake, their throat expands and I've seen them choking down some fish way bigger than I thought they could.

Although I think the breeding range has pushed further south and wouldn't be surprised if it is pretty much from north to south now. Always find it interesting when species have a northern migratory and southern non-migratory population.

Those things are a scourge upon the earth. Ruin fishing and kill trees with their feces. There are inland lakes here that have lost entire islands due to loss of trees allowing erosion from wave action.

I saw where Ontario was planning an open season on them. Hope the US follows.

Interesting Range Map for the Cormorants Spinner. I guess if they open a season, it could be fun, but imagine they would need to be fed to the racoons and gators after a successful hunt

That map ain't right.
Cormorants at Clinton Lake year round and now we got pelicans. Not today of course.

Ricky Spanish wrote:That map ain't right.
Cormorants at Clinton Lake year round and now we got pelicans. Not today of course.

I agree that map is out of date.

SpinnerMan wrote:Although I think the breeding range has pushed further south and wouldn't be surprised if it is pretty much from north to south now.

There are a lot of white pelicans on the Illinois river. I see them above the Starved Rock dam all summer long. Also, I've gone into a backwater and it was just loaded with them.

Eagles are also way more prevalent than in the past. It used to be that seeing a Bald Eagle was unheard of. Now it's not unusual to see them. They nest all over that same part of the Illinois and when we have a hard winter, you can see dozens of them below the Starved Rock dam. It's actually very cool and worth the trip, but only happens when we have a sustained very cold river to freeze up the rivers. Usually means very good goose hunting in January and then head to Starved Rock in February for some very cool bird watching.

Eagles and Turkey buzzards now reside at Clinton Lake.
Things change and then change some more.