Thursday, December 18, 2014

Cormorants' coat of many colours


Thursday's Guardian Country Diary is about cormorants.

Look at a cormorant's plumage from a distance and it seems as though it's coal-black, but a bit of sunshine makes all the difference.



















Bright sunlight glancing off their outstretched wings reveals a bronze iridescence ...




..... but in a more diffuse light there's indigo in the chest and wing feathers....






.... while this juvenile has a hint of bottle green in the crown and tail plumage.

All 'a trick of the light'.


4 comments:

  1. I haven't been close enough to notice!

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    1. very conveniently, the cormorants on this stretch of the Tyne often pose close to the bridge at Wylam

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  2. Sorry to hear that cormorants are so despised by anglers (Guardian article) -- it's always a treat when they make a stop on the Laramie River, not a common thing.

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    Replies
    1. It's jealousy, maybe, because the cormorants aresuperior fish catchers!

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