Time Tested Double Crested

This proudly plumed Cormorant was looking for some attention, or at least some other Cormorant attention (it didn't hang around me for very long). When one is a lonely Cormorant and is looking for companionship, the best and most time-tested method for finding a mate is to grow spindly white plumes on the back and sides of one's head.

This makes one look distinguished, wise, and spunky--the perfect candidate for a pater familias. It might be a widely believed fact that the European gentlemen of the late 1700s used the Double Crested Cormorant as an inspiration for their powdered wigs.

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.