Brandt's Cormorant
Urile penicillatus
During breeding season, adults develop a brilliant cobalt-blue throat pouch and white 'whiskers' on their heads.
- Scientific name
- Urile penicillatus
- Taxonomy
- Animalia › Chordata › Aves › Suliformes › Phalacrocoracidae › Urile
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- aquatic
- Habitat
- Coastal marine waters, rocky islets, and kelp forests along the Pacific shelf.
- Diet
- Small schooling fish such as anchovies, rockfish, and occasionally crustaceans.
- Range
- Pacific Coast of North America, Alaska, California, Baja California
- Size
- Length: 70-89 cm; Wingspan: 110-124 cm; Weight: 1.4-2.7 kg
- Lifespan
- 15-20 years
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Oil spills, plastic pollution, and entanglement in commercial fishing nets.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless but shy. Maintain at least 50 feet distance to avoid disturbing their nesting or resting. If they stretch their necks or fly away, you are too close. Do not feed or attempt to touch.
Brandt's cormorant ( Urile penicillatus ) is a strictly marine bird of the cormorant family of seabirds that inhabits the Pacific coast of North America. It ranges, in the summer, from Alaska to the Gulf of California, but the population north of Vancouver Island migrates south during the winter. Its specific name, penicillatus is Latin for a painter's brush (pencil of hairs), in reference to white plumes on its neck and back during the early breeding season. The...
Photo: Franco Folini, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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