(Credit: U. S. Geological Survey)

Great Cormorant - Phalacrocorax carbo

Identification Tips:

  1. Length: 30 inches Wingspan: 60 inches
  2. Sexes similar
  3. Large, dark waterbird with a long, hooked bill and long tail
  4. Long, thin neck
  5. Gular area pointed and yellow
  6. White chin patch
  7. Often perches with wings spread to dry them

Adult:

  1. Entirely black plumage
  2. White flank patch in breeding season
  3. Second-year bird like adult but browner

Immature:

  1. Pale belly with dark chest, neck and flanks
  2. Brownish back and upperwings

Similar species:

Loons are similar on the water, but lack hooked bills. Most loons hold their bills level while swimming while cormorants hold theirs angled upwards. Anhinga has a long, pointed bill and a much longer tail. All adult cormorant species in the U.S. are separable by the shape and color of the gular areas. No other species has a yellow gular region bordered by a white chin patch. Double-crested Cormorants have straight orange gular areas that are dark-bordered. Immature Double-cresteds have white chests and dark bellies, the opposite of the immature Great Cormorant. At a distance, Great Cormorants appear larger, with heavier bills than Double-Crested Cormorants.