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Phalacrocorax auritus
A pair of double-crested cormorants in a bay in Orlando. Named such because of the two white tuffs of feathers that appear on their heads during the breeding season. Cormorants are one of the widely distributed water birds in North America. They were once considered threatened by use of DDT but thankfully their numbers have returned to Least Concern status. A cormorant produces no oil to waterproof their feathers, despite their habitat and diet and spend much of their resting time with their wings spread drying out their feathers.
A year round resident of the coasts of Alaska and California, down into parts of Mexico and Central America, the coasts of Cuba, and all of Florida. They can also be found as a non-breeding resident in much of the Southeastern US, and take up much of the continental US with their migratory patterns. Finally, breeding areas take them as far north as Southern Canada and the Northeastern US.
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