Cormorants: Dark Feathers, Brilliant Souls - Feb 5, 2025

Here in British Columbia, we’re lucky to share our shorelines with two types of cormorants that I’ve spent time photographing: Common Cormorants, with their sleek black beaks, and Double-crested Cormorants, recognizable by their striking orange-yellow facial skin and beaks.

At first glance, many people dismiss cormorants as “just black birds.” But spend even a few minutes watching them — or better yet, photographing them — and you’ll realize how wrong that assumption is.

Did you know…

Cormorants often hunt cooperatively, herding schools of fish together underwater, which increases their success and reduces energy spent chasing prey.

One of the things I admire most about cormorants is how well they’ve adapted to the world we’ve built around them.

They’ve learned to use old dock posts, pilings, and man-made structures as perches — perfect places to rest, survey the water, and dry their wings. Unlike many water birds, cormorants don’t have fully waterproof feathers. After diving, they often spread their wings wide, even under grey winter skies, letting the air do its quiet work.

Did you know…

Some cormorants can appear to have a lot of white on them, especially during breeding season. These white patches or plumes (often on the head, neck, or flanks) are temporary and help birds signal maturity and attract mates — once breeding season ends, the white feathers disappear.

It’s a behaviour that looks almost ceremonial — part practicality, part poetry.

Cormorants are absolutely stunning when the light hits them just right.

In the sun, their turquoise eyes sparkle like tiny jewels. Their feathers reveal layers of colour — deep black, emerald green, and dark turquoise — shimmering depending on the angle and time of day. They’re proof that beauty doesn’t always shout. Sometimes it waits for you to slow down and really look.

Did you know…

Double-crested Cormorants get their name from two small tufts of feathers (“crests”) that appear on their head during breeding season though they can be hard to spot outside that time.

Cormorants are incredibly fast swimmers and powerful divers. Watching one slip beneath the surface feels almost effortless, like they’re dissolving into the sea itself.

They feed primarily on fish — including small schooling fish, perch, herring, and other coastal species — as well as eels and occasionally crustaceans. Their role as skilled hunters helps keep fish populations balanced, which in turn supports the health of the entire marine ecosystem.

Did you know…

Cormorants can control their buoyancy by adjusting the air in their feathers and lungs, allowing them to dive efficiently and swim low in the water compared to many other seabirds.

Even though cormorants have learned to live alongside us, they still rely on us making better choices.

They need:

• Clean oceans, free from plastic and pollution

• Calmer waters, where boats don’t chase or flush them from feeding and resting areas

• Healthy fish populations, supported by intact marine habitats

Cormorants are part of a much larger web of life. They influence fish populations, provide nutrients to coastal environments, and share space with countless other marine and shoreline species. When one thread in that web weakens, the effects ripple outward.

Protecting cormorants doesn’t require grand gestures — just mindful ones:

• Slow down and keep your distance when boating near resting or feeding birds

• Never approach or harass birds perched on docks or shoreline structures

• Reduce plastic use and properly dispose of fishing line and garbage

Cormorants are spectacular.

They come in different shapes and sizes, with different personalities and preferences — not so different from us. They’ve adapted to our presence, but adaptation shouldn’t mean tolerance of harm.

They deserve clean waters.

They deserve space.

They deserve our protection.

I mean, look at this face.....

Let's do our best to share our world with our wildlife neighbors. They deserve it.