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Post Office Cutie

No Mask needed for this Cormorant. He’s at work on his Post, social distanced from others, and eating a healthy fresh-fish diet. Life is Good : )

 

(Nikon, 500mm + TC 1.4, 1/1000 @ f/8, ISO 1000)

 

For most birds, wet feathers are highly undesirable because they impede their ability to fly and don’t provide insulation. But cormorants dive underwater to catch food. They have feathers that become easily waterlogged, which allows them to dive deeper by preventing air bubbles from getting trapped underneath their feathers. This is one reason you often see cormorants standing with their wings spread, drying their wet wings after diving.

 

Dark body with orange bare skin at the base of the bill. Breeding adults are all black. Immatures and nonbreeders have paler breast. Dives underwater to catch fish. Swims like a duck in between dives. Finds open perches to spread wings and dry feathers. Can be in large flocks or solo.

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Uploaded on November 13, 2020
Taken on February 20, 2020