Sick Cormorant? (1 Viewer)

[robird]

I met this guy by the sea today. Looks like a young cormorant to me. But it was not moving much. It hopped about a bit (4 yards the most) and flapped its wings a couple of times in the ½ hour that I was watching it (and taking pictures, of course).
The bird looked lively enough, but was obviously not in full form, otherwise it would not have let me that close. Later I was told by somebody that it was there for the last 3 days.
It seemed very wet for a bird, if you know what I mean. And when it flapped its wings, it sounded wet, very wet feathers, kinda heavy.
Can anybody here tell me anything about the bird by just looking at the pictures?

 

[IanF]

It's a juvenile Shag by the looks of it.

It doesn't sound too healthy from your description. Any healthy bird would keep it's feathers in tip top condition as it's life depends on them.

 

[robird]

I take your word for it. I’m not very good at this.
Somebody suggested that it could be oil damage, which makes the feathers soak up. But we couldn’t really see any sign of oil otherwise.
Just feels awful to leave the poor fellow to its faith. It won’t ever dry out in this weather.

 

[LeeDavis]

hi

first look at this bird i would say oil. although not clear to see it could have gone in to its feathers and been a dark bird anyway, it will be had to tell unless you touch the feathers.

 

[tjsimonsen]

hi

first look at this bird i would say oil. although not clear to see it could have gone in to its feathers and been a dark bird anyway, it will be had to tell unless you touch the feathers.

Hi,

I agree with Ian, it looks like a shag to me.
It may be oil damaged, but it could also be coursed by some sort of fish garbage the bird has been feeding on. I have seen it a couple of times when herring gulls have been "feasting" on garbage from some sort of fish processing plant (usually in a large harbour). The gulls get so soaked by the garbage (which off course contains a lot of fish oil) that their feathers loose the hydro-phobic ability and the bird enventually freezes to death (or drowns if it tries to swim). A shag's feathers aren't hydro-phobic, but they may loose their ability to dry if they get soaked in fish oil.

/Thomas

 

[robird]

Thanks, Lee. I didn’t touch the feathers because I didn’t want to freak the bird too much. And since I don’t know anything about handling birds, I reckoned I could possibly do more damage than good.

Thanks Thomas, that is an interesting observation, although unlikely in this area. There is not much fish processing going on nearby.

I went back a few of days ago, but couldn’t find the bird anywhere. We had an awful storm that night. Just hope, it survived.
I’ll let you know if I find out more.

BTW, do cormorants have the same shape feet as shags?

 

[IanF]

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BTW, do cormorants have the same shape feet as shags?

All being well it will have survived the experience.

Their feet are the same shape/structure but Cormorants are black. The feet below are from a juvenile Cormorant.