A day of cormorant's life

Gorgeous black bird with a long neck, orange accent and green eyes... Double Crested Cormorant is a large waterbird... You can meet this bird near rivers and lakes throughout the States - they are widely distributed from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska down to Florida and Mexico.

 

Can you find them in Denver? Certainly! Just go to the City Park and find a small lake adjusted to the Denver zoo. A small island in the middle of the lake is home to a cormorant community. And Spring is a special time for the birds... Nesting and mating in the safety of the island is exactly what they need.

From the first glance it might seem that Cormorant's life is simple and easy. But if you spend an hour or two near their colony, you learn that is not entirely true. The birds are constantly flying around (at great speed, by the way) and running the errands. They fly low, just above the water surface or high in the sky... If they swim, they also swim very low in the water with mostly neck and head visible above the surface.

Building and taking care of the nest is hard work and birds are constantly on the look for some sticks they use to build a perfect home.

Landing on the water surface requires great skill and comes with lots of splashing, loud noise and disturbing everyone around.

Cormorant can dive. I mean it. In fact they are able to dive to a depth of 4-25 feet for 30-70 seconds. And once they are back on the surface it's time to take off...

And they need to return back to their families in the trees and tell them news....

And then they fly down again and swim and dive...

It's fun to watch a bird take off... With even more splashes ;)

And once in a while it feels nice to spend some time with mates. Not in the pub, obviously, but chatting and arguing about baseball or golf.

And soar up in the sky with the wings wide spread...

And land on the water again...

And find some more sticks and bring them to the nest...

And fly down again...

And repeat all above over and over the whole day...

That is pretty much the life of the cormorant and... I am not sure if I am jealous (only, probably, about soaring and swimming ;) ). But it is fun watching them and learning about their life...

Click here to see another day in the park and more birds - Life of birds

Or here to see other City park birds and animals... 

Pictures were taken on April 09, 2023.