#khe91

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Prep No.KHE91

Pelagic Cormorant

Urile pelagicus

[deadbirdsdaily]

Prep No.KHE 91

Pelagic Cormorant

Urile pelagicus

Cormorants are unique amongst diving birds because they’re feathers aren’t waterproof. Most birds use oil secreted from their preen gland to waterproof their feathers to keep them warm and dry while swimming in the rain, hence the “water off a ducks back” idiom.

Instead cormorants take on water, which probably helps them dive faster and deeper than other diving birds because they’re not as bouyant. Pelagic Cormorants can dive 140 ft underwater (Orta, 1992). But they do also have to dry out in the sun after hunting, which is why you often see them roosting in groups by the water with their wings spread out.

The following are mostly observations from preparing three cormorants, that I need to do more research on to see if they’ve been noted in the literature.

Cormorants have extra dense sleek body plumage made of small tightly packed feathers. The photos above show this from the outside and inside. Left: When I part the feathers along the keel bone to start skinning, I still can’t see the skin, even slicking them with water. Most birds have patches of bare skin between the 10 main feather tracks (apteria). Cormorants basically don’t. Right: All those little lines are feather follicles in the skin. They are so my much more densely packed than any other bird I’ve skinned (I’ll try to remember to get more comparison photos).

The fat deposits on cormorants seem to be more evenly distributed than in other birds. Most birds tend to have specific areas where they store fat in big clumps. Cormorants have this too, to an extent, but they also have a uniform layer of fat all along the inside of the skin.

The feather texture also feels more mammalian to me when you stroke it, almost like a river otter. I don’t know if this is significant, but I enjoy it.

Orta, Jaume (1992a): 12. Pelagic Cormorant. In: del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew & Sargatal, Jordi (eds.): Handbook of Birds of the World (Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks): 346, plate 22. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 84-87334-10-5

[deadbirdsdaily]

Prep No.KHE91

Pelagic Cormorant

Urile pelagicus

The sharp hook on Cormorants’ beaks helps them keep hold of and reposition slippery fish. Many fishing birds share this trait, like Brown Pelican’s. Other birds, including Cormorants’ close relatives: Anhingas, have a sharp spear shaped beak that they use to impale their fish instead.

[deadbirdsdaily]

Prep No.KHE91

Pelagic Cormorant

Urile pelagicus

[deadbirdsdaily]

Prep No.KHE91

Pelagic Cornorant

Urile pelagicus

These are photos taken before skinning as they’re still a work in progress. Cormorants are one of my favorite birds to observe and prepare. They’re incredibly efficient aquatic predators, and they have several special adaptations for their specialized hunting style.

One of which is that they don’t have nostrils. Other diving seabirds like gannets and pelicans also lack external nares. This means they don’t get water up their nose.

There’s been frequent debate about birds sense if smell, but we now know several species have excellent senses of smell like Turkey Vultures and Storm Petrels (Audubon, “Do Birds Have a Sense of Smell,” 2025). But for a lot of birds, their ‘sense of smell’ is probably relatively poor (like ours…) and not as important as their vision or hearing.