It’s a bit of both.
Though I can identify the few varieties that appear in my yard or sit on fence and phone lines beside the country roads I regularly visit on my ’84 Virago 1000 I don’t know what name to attach to the bird below.
It was walking south near the intersection of East and North Chin Rd.
And when I approached it spread its wings to make itself appear larger.
It tried to lift off the ground two or three times without luck.
I hope it learned to fly before night settled in and the coyotes came out to play.
Can you identify it for me?
Click here to see more pictures from Georgian Bay.
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5 comments:
I tried All About Birds from Cornell U. trying to ID this guy and the beak, basic silhouette, and features all say cormorant to me. But the double-breasted variety is the only one they list as indigenous to the area where you found this guy, and that variety doesn't have webbed feet. Brandt's Cormorant looks most like this photo, but is only found on the Pacific Coast. The Great Cormorant isn't limited to the Pacific Coast, but is limited to only a few places in North America (Ontario not being one of them). So it's possible your mystery is less about what kind of bird he is than about how he came to be where he was.
mojo, i'll send photo and your detective work to local columnist and 'bird man'. i look forward the mystery unravelled.
thanks for your leg work!
cheers, gord h.
Ah-hah!
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/resources/d_chalfant/pcd3910_091.jpg/view.html
A perfect match? I do believe Mojo was correct.
(more photos here: http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/pictures/Pelecaniformes_0105.html )
hi mojo and smarmoofus;
i've read that juvenile double-crested cormorants are a shiny brown, as was this one when I walked behind it for a few seconds; the lower yellow bill is much like that of a neotropic cormorant found in Louisiana and Texas, and though walking, the one i spotted was heading south.
good thing i wasn't handing out prizes because I still can't pin it down 100 %.
i'm heading back to Georgian bay in early August and will keep my eyes peeled.
Thanks for your work and links.
Cheers,
Gord H.
readers:
I did contact Bill Schmoker; he keeps an extensive bird site on the web.
his comment:
Hi Gord- I'd go with Double-crested Cormorant. To respond to one of the comments, all cormorants have webbed feet. And Double-crested is indeed the only cormorant species expected in the Great Lakes region (and indeed, throughout the interior of North America.
Brandt's Cormorants don't show that much yellow on the face as juveniles, while Double-crested Cormorants do. See attached range maps and images of juveniles from Birds of North America online (http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna)
Hope this helps- Bill
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