Neotropic Cormorant

I have a really hard time telling the Neotropic and Double-Crested Cormorants apart. In Texas it was easier, but here in Arizona, it's possible to find both inhabiting the waterways, and I see Cormorants all over the city.

The difficulty of classifying them aside, I love to get a good look at Cormorants. It's fun to watch them swim with their somewhat serpentine bodies, and it's downright comical to see them hanging their wings out to dry, like a kid that just got his t-shirt all soaked. I also think that Cormorants have some of the most stunning eyes in the avian world (granted, I haven't seen a White-Eyed Vireo yet). Raptor eyes are large and piercing, but there's something about the aqua blue in the Cormorant eye that's totally transfixing (click for a larger view).

I believe that the strong white border behind the beak, along with the near lack of orange towards the front of the beak make this a Neotropic Cormorant (let me know if I'm wrong). Concealed behind a palm tree, I got to take a few nice shots and stare into the blue Cormorant eyes that take you away to a distant sea.

Double-Crested Cormorant

The Double-Crested is the most wide-spread Cormorant in North America, and is really the only species to be found very far inland. I've seen them in flocks of hundreds, if not thousands, off the Trinity River in Dallas in the evening.

The crests become very visible during the spring months, when the Cormorants try to attract a little extra attention.