Differentiating West Coast Cormorants
© Bert Frenz, 1999
In my
experience, cormorants are hard to identify because I rarely get close enough to see the
bill and facial pouch clearly. So my identifications are more often done by shapes,
sizes and behavior, particular with birds in flight. My favorite is the Red-faced
Cormorant, perhaps because it is the rarest. Although I've encountered them a
half-dozen times in Alaska, I have yet to get a photo of them.
| Double-crested Cormorant | Brandt's Cormorant | Pelagic Cormorant | Red-faced Cormorant | |
| Relative size | large | large | smaller, slimmer | like Pelagic |
| Flight | crooked neck | straighter neck; flock often flies in straight line | arrow-like thin head & neck; white flank patch (breeding) | like Pelagic but thicker neck |
| Tail | medium | short | long | long |
| Neck & head | thick | big head, slender neck | very thin | thin |
| Pouch (adult) | orange-yellow | blue with buffy border | red | extensive red |
| Bill | thick, dark | thick, dark | small, dark, thinest of all | thin, pale |
| Photos | 1 2 | 1 2 | 1 2 | none |