wgeoff

On 18th January, whilst waiting at the S point of Po Toi for the Temminck's Cormorant to appear, I saw another cormorant which flew past me from the direction of Dangan Island and on to Po Toi harbour, then turned around and flew back over my head before going out to sea towards Dangan.

At the time, I reported this as a Great Cormorant (see my report for the third week of January at Po Toi) because I was expecting to see the Temminck's and was comparing it with that bird. However, since then I have had doubts about this ID and have checked the photos including blow-ups of the head as follows



I now think this may be a winter plumage Pelagic Cormorant for the following reasons

1. the neck is too thin for a Great Cormorant
2. the bill is too small and thin for a Great Cormorant
3. there is no pale or white colour on the body
4. blow-ups of the head show a red face colour behind the bill

Pelagic rather than Red-faced for the following reasons

5. the red colour is below the eye rather than around the eye.
6. the bill is dark rather than pale yellowish
7. Red-faced is vagrant to China whereas Pelagic has been seen in Guangdong (according to BoHK&SC).

I would welcome any comments on this bird.

[ Last edited by wgeoff at 18/08/2010 17:33 ]

tmichael

Wow!

Yes , sounds and looks good for Pelagic to me, for all the reasons you give.

Don't see how it can possibly be Great or Temminck's, so yet another first.

Perhaps Mrs Davies did after all have the occasional "Resplendant Shag" (old name) on Cheung Chau in the 1930s! (see Chalmers 1986:249)

Mike Turnbull

ajohn

I think this is actually a Great Cormorant.

Perhaps it's the computer monitor I have, but the photos seem to show a white throat patch, extensive yellow gular skin and fairly pale, greyish bill - all features typical of great. Adult great would not show any pale feathers in mid-Jan except on the throat so the lack of white flank patch and neck doesn't rule that out.
I agree that the neck looks slightly slimmer than is usually the case on great, but I think the 'kink' in the neck is fairly typical. I think the bill looks slightly slimmer because of the angle of the bird.

Pelagic/red-faced should look all-black (including face/bill - the red on the face is very limited) and I think even longer, slimmer necked and longer-billed.

Looking for pictures on the net, I found the following in-flight Pelagic cormorant in the US:
http://www.mbnms-simon.org/other/photos/photo_download.php?photoID=713&search=birds&speciesSearchTerm=&keywordSearchTerm=&s=160&page=9&image=RES_072205_048.JPG
The picture shows a very long, straight neck, very slender bill and long tail.

Also a perched winter-plumaged bird in Japan, which shows no pale areas on the head (just a paler area on the bill):
http://www.orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?p=4&action=searchresult&Bird_ID=1083&Bird_Family_ID=&pagesize=1

wgeoff

A number of people have been led astray by these photos (not just Mike and me). The neck and bill does look thin and the shape does look odd.

But I think John has it right - it is a Great Cormorant. You can see the white face with yellow skin on the third photo, when you look hard enough. But it may depend on the quality of your screen.

tmichael

Oh dear!

It's back into the doubtful tray for Mrs D's long gone shags.

One to keep on the lookout for though!

Mike Turnbull

ajohn

I have seen the pictures on various different screens - on most the bird does look all dark, but on my screen the white throat/yellow face is obvious on all except the first photo.

I agree the structure looks a bit odd though - especially the thin neck on the second photo.