Animal Life in the Yosemite
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THE BIRDS

FARALLON CORMORANT. Phalacrocorax auritus albociliatus Ridgway

Field characters.—General appearance goose-like; neck long and slender, wings long but narrow, tail narrow. Plumage wholly black in adults; in immatures, brownish above, gray or whitish below. Bare skin on chin and throat (involving "gular sac") yellowish orange. In flight, course direct, wing beats continuous, neck outstretched and often crooked.

Occurrence.—Observed along Tuolumne River below Lagrange, May 6 and 7, 1919. One individual taken in Yosemite Valley (see below). Usually frequents vicinity of lakes or reservoirs.

The Farallon Cormorant, although thought of chiefly as a bird of the seacoast, is well known to visit and nest on a number of the larger inland lakes of California. Small colonies may possibly occur about some of the larger reservoirs in the foothills of the Yosemite region. Three different times on May 6 and 7, 1919, single individuals were seen flying down the Tuolumne River below Lagrange. As the bird or birds seen all took a course leading toward a reservoir in the hills nearby, it was thought that there might be a small colony established there.

A single bird of this species on exhibit in the superintendent's office in Yosemite Valley was taken in the Valley by Ranger Townsley some time between 1916 and 1919.



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Animal Life in the Yosemite
©1924, University of California Press
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

grinnell/birds6.htm — 19-Jan-2006