The Baird Cormorant 



No. 397 



Baird's Cormorant 



A. O. U. No. 123b. Phalacrocorax pelagicus resplendens Audubon. 



Synonyms. — Resplendent Cormorant. Southern Violet-green Cormo- 

 rant. Shag. 



Description. — Adults in breeding plumage: General coloration deep lustrous 

 bottle-green with purplish reflections; head and neck all around shining violet with 

 steel-blue changes, a few lanceolate white feathers projecting at random from sides 

 of head and neck; a prominent flank-patch pure white; frontal and occipital feathers 

 lengthened, producing two crests, of which frontal more prominent; frontal feathering 

 reaching culmen, but eyelids and space below eye bare; gular sac reduced in area, dull 

 coral-red. Bill and feet bluish-black; iris bright red. Adults after breeding season 

 are without crests, plumules, or flank-patches. Young birds are plain sooty black 

 above, lighter, or whitening centrally, below. Nestlings hatched naked, soon acquiring 

 sooty gray down. Length (av. of 10 Monterey Bay specimens): 640.8 (25.51); wing 

 259 (10.20); bill 46.5 (1.83), depth at narrowest portion 7.57 (.30); tarsus 50.8 (2.00). 



Recognition Marks. — Brant size, smallest of local cormorants; white flank- 

 patches in breeding season; lustrous green and violet plumage distinctive. 



Nesting. — Nest: A low crater or semilune, compacted chiefly of eel-grass, 

 cemented with excrement; placed on narrow ledge or upon rock boss of sea-wall. 

 Eggs: 2 to 4, 5 of record; pale bluish green, with irregular calcareous covering; elongate 

 ovate to cylindrica' ovate. Av. size 57.3 x 35.6 (2.256 x 1 40); index 60.3. Season: 

 June; one brood. 



Range of Phalacrocorax pelagicus. — The coasts of the North Pacific Ocean, 

 south to China and western Mexico. 



Range of P. p. resplendens. — Pacific Coast of North America from northern 

 Washington south to Cape San Lucas and Mazatlan, Mexico. 



Distribution in California. — Common resident along the entire seacoast, 

 breeding upon exposed portions of rugged rocks and mainland cliffs. Not found away 

 from salt water. 



Authorities. — Heermann (Phalacrocorax resplendens), Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., 

 vol. x., 1859, p. 72 (Farallon Ids.); W. E. Bryant, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., ser. 2, i., 1888, 

 p. 25 (desc. breeding colony on Farallon Ids.); Clay, Condor, vol. xiii., 191 1, p. 138 

 (depth of diving). 



HARD experience, as well as innate suspicion, has led the Baird 

 Cormorant, long since, to forsake the comfortable quarters of her easy- 

 going kinsmen, the Brandt and the Farallon, and to rear her young on 

 the bosses and inaccessible ledges of grim sea-cliffs. The ridges and 

 crests belong to the larger Shags, but the sides are her domain. Her calcu- 

 lations are not always infallible — your Shag is no Plato — but unget- 

 atability has been her life study, and her average attainments in this 

 line are noteworthy. The sculptured pillars and crannied sea-walls of 



1956 



