This YouTube video was produced by the American Bird Conservancy.
The big, black Double-crested Cormorant is a common waterbird of lakes and shorelines throughout North America. Although it is an expert fisher, its feathers lack the waterproofing common to most other waterbirds, such as the Mallard or Common Loon. Unlike these waterbirds, Double-crested Cormorants don’t have well-developed uropygial glands, which produce the waterproofing oil that birds spread over their feathers as they preen. Consequently, the Double-crested Cormorant has to spend a lot of time drying out, and it can often be sighted atop a piling, jetty, or dock with its waterlogged wings spread out to dry in the sun. This seeming disadvantage actually makes the cormorant a more efficient fish hunter, as its heavy bones and lack of buoyancy allow it to dive more easily and stay down for longer as it pursues its prey.
A relative of birds such as the Great Frigatebird and Northern Gannet, the Double-crested Cormorant is the most numerous and widely distributed of the six North American cormorant species, which also include the Brandt’s, Pelagic, Red-faced, Neotropic, and Great Cormorants. Cormorants are closely related to shags, which are smaller but similar-looking dark waterbirds distributed throughout Eurasia, Australasia, and Africa.
Read more about the Double-crested Cormorant: https://abcbirds.org/bird/double-crested-cormorant/
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