Cormorants

There are a lot of cormorants on the Pacific coast.  One species has yellow on the face.  They are extremely easy to identify any time of the year.  They are Double-crested Cormorants.  Some of them live in Saskatchewan in the summer.  Some even fish in our dugout.

There are two other species that like the ocean and never wander two provinces over.  They are Pelagic Cormorants and Brandt's Cormorants.  I can just about guarantee that there are some of each in this photo.

In the breeding season the Pelagic has red on the face and the Brandt's has blue. The best I can discover in this off season of October is that the Brandt's shows tan where a chin should be and the Pelagic has a small bill.  Many of the birds above show the Brandt tan chin.

When I looked at individual birds things got a little trickier.

Shall we say this one is a Pelagic because it has no tan and appears to have a thin bill?

I had trouble finding a close up photo of a cormorant with a tan chin so instead chose this fellow because he is kind of tan all over, possibly the sign of a first year Brandt's.  

I have many identifiable photos of Double-crested Cormorants.  But only because I didn't really care!