Double Crested Cormorant question

[Bob Serling]

I took this ID quality picture of two Double Crested Cormorants this past weekend. The bird on the left has crests that are nearly all black rather than the typical white.

I have never seen this before, nor had any of the other photographers who were shooting in this spot in La Jolla that's well known for cormorants in breeding plumage.

Does anyone know if this is a normal morph or is it an anomaly?

Thanks,

Bob Serling

[Asta Tobiassen]

Hi Bob, I had never noticed black feathers on the Double Crested Cormorants before either (I will need to go back and hunt through my photos, probably missed it), but I found this, on Cornell's All About Birds website, on this species: In the breeding season, adults develop a small double crest of stringy black or white feathers. ​Good eye.

[Bob Serling]

Hi Asta,

Thanks for the info. A local Audubon member here in San Diego sent me links to Cornell and the national Audubon site, which prompted me to do a bit more research. According to an entry on Wikipedia, there are four main sub-species of DCC. One sub-species with white crests is indigenous to the west coast. The sub-species with the black crests is commonly found in the midwest, so we must have picked up a migrant here!

Bob Serling

[Sandy Witvoet]

I've not seen any of the white-ish crests here in MI..... thanks for the education! BTW... "talk about a 'bad crest' day!"

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Guys, Eastern and central birds always have black crests. The birds on the west coast almost always have the snazzy white crests. The bird with the black and a bit of white likely represents some type of genetic anomaly.

[Ian Cassell]

Hmmmm .... or else he's just from out East visiting his Western cousin to get away from the cold ....

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Ian, That is not likely as they are not long-distance migrants. See some snazzy western DCCO images here: http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/2014/...r-work-snazzy/