ML610718111

Age and sex

Juvenile, Unknown sex - X

Behaviors

Flying

Observation details

presumably the same bird found by the Roses yesterday in the old Salinas River channel up river of the Potrero bridge (I've compared photos and think it likely, but others are uncertain). Re-discovered or found by Bill Hubick this date on the same snag it was using the day before. The lighting was poor looking SW to the snag on which the cormorant was sitting, but I tried digiscope and distant photos from the bridge at parking lot. We talked to Steve Rovell (on his way out) and Mark Chappell (arriving after us; he hiked the dunes to get photos). Some time later the cormorant flew from the snag into the channel and dove for fish, eventually moving closer to us (more photos attempted). We had gotten our cameras out in case it flew north; eventually it did so and we got flight shots. DR writes: "a very dark-brown cormorant, paler about the chest, in juvenal plumage (all remiges and rectrices looked fresh in flight, with no molt). A small-looking cormorant, although not adjacent to any other cormorant, but looked small, slender, and somewhat long-tailed when sitting on the snag it was sitting (same snag used by yesterday's bird). Very short-billed and small-headed (compared to many DCCO upstream, but not adjacent), It had a 'headless' look as the head was not larger than the neck (similar to PECO in that aspect, but without the 'chin' of PECO). In flight the tail looked longish (compared to short-tailed DCCO) but not as long as I expect for adults. Later review of photos showed a yellow bill and gular, with a separate yellow skin spot (oblong) in front of eye, but lores dark, and dark eye surrounded at least in back by feathers. A thin feathered line, contrastingly white, was at lower edge of gular pouch, and there was an acute angle at tha back of gular (but less dramatic than as present in adults). Review of photos in eBird showed much variation in color and gular expanse in juvenile NECO, and there was i.d. discussion in some eBird posts, plus an article from Texas that I found on line. I feel this is Neotropic on body size, bill length, bill color and gular color, 'lack-of-head' [and flat-topped] shape, tail length, and many pointed back, scapular, and upperwing covert feathers (seen in photos by M. Chappell). These all support NECO, and nothing suggests DCCO. Even gular shape seemed to be in range of variation in juvs. Hybrids have been reported and photo'd in San Diego & Orange counties, but the photo of those that I looked at suggested a cormorant with a DCCO orange gular/bare skin area that encompassed the eye, but in a cormorant smaller in size than DCCO on direct comparison. This cannot be the NECO in this same location in September 2021, because that bird was a subadult/adult in wing molt; this bird is in juvenile plumage. This is also not the same NECO that was in Santa Cruz County in Oct of this year, since it did not have a yellow bill or a yellow spot above the lores; it was also darker in plumage tone (going by photos; I did not see that bird."

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS REBEL SL1

Lens

EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM

ISO

800

Focal length

60 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/7.1

Shutter speed

1/4000 sec

Dimensions

1279 pixels x 824 pixels

Original file size

134.93 KB