Bird of the Month: Pelagic Cormorant
Written by Andy McCormick
Andy McCormick, Volunteer and Former Board President of Eastside Audubon
Our smallest cormorant is not as seagoing as its name implies and resides mostly along rocky shorelines. It is somewhat less common in southern Puget Sound and in rivers and lakes near the coast.
The Pelagic Cormorant is most readily identified by its black plumage, small size relative to other cormorants, pencil-thin dark bill, and thin neck, which is straight in flight. Adults have an iridescent green and purple gloss. In breeding plumage, the pelagic develops a glossier look and raised feathers on the head form two moderate crests. It also sports white patches on the flanks and thin white plumes (filoplumes) on its head and back. At close range the red patch at the base of the bill can be seen. Juvenile Pelagic Cormorants are gray on the head and neck and darker toward the rear.
Compared to the Pelagic Cormorant, other Pacific Northwest cormorants, Double-crested (Nannopterum. auritus) and Brandt’s (Urile penicillatus), are larger and thicker looking with heavier bills and a yellow or tan gular pouch below the bill. In far northern waters the Red-faced Cormorant (U. urile) also has white flank patches. Photos, videos, and vocalizations of Pelagic Cormorant can be found at The Macaulay Library.
EXPERT SWIMMER AND DIVER
Pelagic cormorant
Scientific Name: Urile pelagicus
Length: 28”
Wingspan: 39”
Weight: 3.9 lb (1,800 g)
AOU Alpha Code: PECO
Pelagic cormorants can dive down to 120 feet to forage at the bottom of rocky cliffs in search of herring, sand lance, and other small fish. They will also take crabs and shrimp. During dives their buoyancy is reduced by the feather structure which allows water to penetrate the feathers making them heavier (Hobson). Cormorants will propel themselves underwater with webbed feet and sometimes with their wings. After a session of fishing, they hold their wings out to the sides allowing them to dry.
COLONIAL NESTER
Colonies of nesting Pelagic Cormorants are smaller than those of other cormorants. These birds build nests on narrow cliff ledges and mated pairs will often use the same nest year-after-year adding seaweed and grass to it each spring. The timing of nesting varies geographically. Most Pelagic Cormorants are resident and do not migrate. However, those that breed around the Bering Sea will move south in fall and migrate back to the breeding grounds in late May (Hobson). Usually, 3-5 eggs are deposited and both parents incubate the eggs for about five weeks. Following hatching, the young will be fed regurgitated food by the parents for another month until they become able to take short flights. Parental feeding can continue for a few weeks after the young leave the nest (Kaufman). As the young become more independent, they swim and dive voluntarily (Hobson).
STATUS AND DISTRIBUTION
Pelagic Cormorants are resident and breed in Washington mainly along the outer coast. Their breeding range extends south primarily on rocky coastal islands along the coast of Oregon and California to Baja California, Mexico. To the north, pelagics breed on the coast of British Columbia, Alaska, and west to Russia and south to China and the Kurile Islands of Japan. The Sea of Okhotsk, Russia is a stronghold for this species (Hobson). It can be seen locally from Alki Beach in Seattle and along the coast of Puget Sound and the outer coast. A 1980s estimate of the population of Pelagic Cormorants considered the species stable at about 120,000 birds.
CHANGES IN TAXONOMY
In 2021 following a study of cormorants using DNA testing, taxonomists restructured Pelagic Cormorant and three other North American cormorants into the genus Urile. The four are considered Northern Pacific Cormorants. The genus Urile was introduced in 1856 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte and Northern Pacific Cormorants are thought to have evolved from other cormorants in the larger genus Phalacrocorax between 8.9 and 10.3 million years ago (Wikipedia). The Urile name possibly refers to the Kurile Islands, Japan. Pelagic refers to the open sea, and despite its preference for salt water, this cormorant is more inclined to be close to shore (Holloway).
Banner image courtesy of Canva Images
Second photo credit: Andrew Reding
References available upon request from amccormick@eastsideaudubon.org
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