Mondays here at Hoffman Art Design are for the birds! And today, keeping with that theme, we are going to take a look at cormorants. As it happens, there are over 40 species of cormorants worldwide, and about a half dozen in the US, with the most common and widespread being the Double-crested Cormorant. Since that is the one that can be sound in my part of the US, that’s the one we’ll be seeing in today’s pictures!
Cormorants are somewhat related to the anhinga, whom we met a few weeks ago. Both are strong swimmers and dive for fish, and both tend to perch with their wings spread after prolonged periods in the water. Cormorants are easily distinguished from anhinga, once you know the key features. The most telling is the heavy yellow hooked bill of the cormorant. This bill is quite different from the needle-like bill we saw on the anhinga.