Double-crested cormorant
Description: Most numerous and widely distributed species of the six North American cormorants. All black body; blue eyes; long, crooked neck; thin bill with hooked tip; two small tufts — or crests — of feathers on the head.
Range in Georgia: Common resident in most of the state except the mountains.
Habitat: Seldom found away from bodies of water — coastal estuaries, lakes, rivers and swamps.
Voice: Mostly quiet, but occasionally emits piglike grunts.
Feeding habits: Dives from the surface to as deep as 30 feet; uses powerful strokes from strong webbed feet to hunt schooling fish or bottom-dwelling fish and invertebrates; a great variety of species have been reported; rudderlike tail, excellent underwater vision and sealed nostrils also help in diving for prey; waterproof feathers are absent, so feathers must be dried after diving.
Nesting: Monogamous pairs breed in colonies with other cormorants and often with terns and gulls; prefers to nest in trees when available but will nest on the ground; nests built near water; nests made of sticks, aquatic vegetation and guano; pair incubates two to seven bluish eggs for 25-29 days; young are fed by regurgitation.
Sources: Birds of North America Online; Birds of Georgia
If you visit any sizable body of water in Georgia, you’re likely to see small to large flocks of a big, black, long-necked bird in the water or flying overhead. Several of the diving birds also may be standing onshore or perched in a tree with their wings spread to dry wet feathers.
They are double-crested cormorants, a native waterbird species that has a strong affinity for fish. For the most part, birdwatchers view cormorants as dull, uncharismatic birds and usually pay them little heed.
Many anglers, though, downright dislike the bird. They say cormorants compete with them for fish, including game fish and catfish, to the point that the birds spoil many an angler’s fishing trip.
That’s what has cormorants immersed in deep controversy and, literally, under fire.
In South Carolina, a special monthlong “depredation” hunt that began on Valentine’s Day allows 520 hunters with permits to kill thousands of the birds at some of the state’s biggest lakes. During the first such hunt a year ago, some 11,000 cormorants were shot over the state’s Lakes Marion and Moultrie.
Otherwise, federal law protects cormorants as a migratory species. That’s why conservationist groups are suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for allowing the hunts.
In large part, state and federal wildlife officials are permitting the “culling” to appease fishing groups, who say that cormorants are decimating populations of game fish either directly or indirectly by eating small fish that game fish prey on. Many researchers, however, dispute that.
There are no plans in Georgia for special cormorant hunts. Anglers, though, say cormorant populations seem to be increasing.
“A few years ago I seldom saw a cormorant,” said Clay Cunningham, a Lake Lanier fishing guide. “Now, I’m seeing more and more of them.”
In the sky: The moon will be full Thursday — the "Windy Moon" as the Cherokee peoples called March's full moon, said David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer. It is also known as the "Worm Moon" because earthworms emerge at the end of winter and herald spring. Mercury is low in the east just before sunrise. Venus is in the west just after dark and sets two hours later. Mars also sets in the west a few hours after sunset. Jupiter is in the east at around sunset and is visible all night. It will appear near the moon Monday night. Saturn rises out of the southeast a few hours after midnight.
