Double-Crested Cormorant

QUICK FACTS

Length: ~ 2.5 feet
Color: Black with colorful bill
Diet: Omnivorous (Mainly fish, some other small aquatic animals and plants)
Habitat: Most places with bodies of water, sea or fresh
Average Lifespan: ~ 6 years
Nests: Beside or sometimes directly above water
Status: Least Concern (not endangered)

 

Double-Crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus); taken on the Concord River in Lowell

These large birds can adapt to most watery habitats. In Lowell they are most often seen along the Merrimack River at Pawtucket Falls, in the Pawtucket Canal, and along the Concord River Greenway. Their nests also tend to be next to or even directly above water sources. Cormorants are attracted to the water because their diet consists mainly of fish - though they have been known to snack on snakes, eels, plants and just about any small aquatic creature they can find.

Male cormorants are bigger than the females. Young cormorants are a duller color, dark brown with gray or white undercoat. During the mating season, cormorants develop their titular dual black crests on their heads. Their eyelids also turn blue and their usually red and yellow throat sac turns orange. Both males and females show off their impressive colors by waving their wings, and males perform a courtship dance.

If you manage to see a cormorant, it will likely be either diving for fish or perched somewhere dry fanning out their wings. Unlike ducks and geese, cormorants do not create water-repellent oils to protect their feathers when they go underwater, so they cannot stay wet for too long. Cormorants fish in shallower waters, not more than 50 feet deep, propelling themselves through the water with their webbed feet. They migrate to the coast periodically and move South during the New England's colder seasons. Their populations have been on the rise for about thirty years, much to the chagrin of some fishermen who blame them for declining fish populations.

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