In 1983, long before I was a birder or even a nature photographer, I had my first encounter with a cormorant. At the time, I was on an educational tour through the heart of China with a dear friend who had been born in Hong Kong and had organized this adventure for us.
In addition to visiting various educational institutions in China, our tour included a boat ride along the idyllic Li River in Guilin where we were witness to the ancient tradition of cormorant fishing. The cormorants used by the fishermen to catch fish were trained from an early age to dive into the water, retrieve a fish, and bring it back! To keep the cormorant from swallowing the fish, a snare was tied around the base of the bird’s neck. It was loose enough for the cormorant to swallow smaller fish, but not the larger ones. When the cormorant brought its catch back to the fisherman, the bird was quickly rewarded— albeit with a much smaller fish!
This tradition of cormorant fishing, which had been handed down from generation to generation for more than 1,300 years, was already a dying trade when I visited in 1983. The combined effect of industrialization, modernized fishing techniques, and a declining fish population slowly made this way of life economically obsolete. Today, cormorant fishing continues to exist in some areas of China, primarily as a tourist attraction.
My next encounter with cormorants came thirty years later while I was visiting Florida for the very first time. I had a brand-new camera with a small telephoto lens and was eagerly taking pictures of everything in sight! One of those “things” was a cormorant.
By 2021, I had a much better camera with a much longer lens, and could photograph birds that were amazingly far away! So, on a warm, sunny afternoon in early August, I zoomed in on a bird perched high in a tree on the far side of a pond at our local state fish hatchery! To my complete surprise, it was a cormorant! I didn’t even know we had cormorants in Michigan! Apparently, we have lots of them, especially along Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. You can also find them on some of our inland lakes—or our fish hatcheries!
There are six different species of cormorants in the United States, but the most common and the most widespread is the double-crested cormorant; named for two small, wispy patches of feathers, or crests, that grow on its head during breeding season.
Cormorants are unusual birds. They lack the high-density, waterproofing preen oil of other birds, making their feathers absorb water rather than shedding it. This reduces their buoyancy and allows them to dive deeper and swim faster than most other diving birds. Before these waterlogged cormorants can take flight, though, they must stand with their wings outstretched to dry. This behavior also serves to regulate their body temperature and to reduce the chilling effects of cold water.
Double-crested cormorants are a force of nature when it comes to catching fish! They can dive 25-30 feet below the surface of the water chasing after fish using their powerful, webbed feet for propulsion. Once they catch a fish, cormorants bring it to the surface to “shake, break, and consume’ it! Shaking the fish and beating it against a hard surface will either stun the fish or kill it. Whacking it against a rock or a tree limb also breaks its bones and makes the fish easier to swallow. Not a good day for the fish!
Before cormorants can swallow a fish, they need to toss it into the air and make sure it goes down their throat head first. Swallowing the fish head-first ensures that its sharp fins and spine don’t puncture the bird’s throat. On rare occasions, if the fish is too big, it gets stuck going down and the bird suffocates. Not a good day for the cormorant!
Cormorants are not a well-loved bird. They are voracious predators, eating about a pound of fish every single day; an incredible amount of food for a bird that only weighs five pounds!! It would be like a 200-pound man eating 40 pounds of food in the same amount of time!! For this reason, cormorants are neither a fisherman’s friend nor a welcome guest at a fish hatchery. In some coastal communities, cormorants are nesting by the hundreds or even thousands, creating serious problems with no easy answers.
Luckily, my only problem with cormorants is getting them to stand still long enough to take a picture!
