Bird ID Query

Navanboyo

Hi,
just a query on something seen today. I was driving and seen a couple of large birds perched on a bare tree in the fields about 100 plus yards away. What caught my attention was that one of them was predominently white. I assumed it was a Heron so turned back to see if I could make it out.
Obviously they were large birds and as far as I could see it was two Cormorants.

The tree was beside a river so that would make sense. It was definately not a heron.

So my query is as follows and excuse my ignorance please.

I thought Cormorants were almost all black but this one was white on the front with dark wings and I assume a dark back. It was facing me and would remind you of the colour combination of a penquin.

Would this be a juvenile Bird or are there different types of cormorants ?

It would spread its wings as if drying them and ive seen them do this before.

I got photos but probably cannot post them here and they give an idea of what i was looking at but they were quite far away.

So just curious and i'm sure some of the experts here might be able to shed light on it. I do read this forum and enjoy it very much.

Thank you in advance.

lucalux

Navanboyo wrote: »

Hi,
just a query on something seen today. I was driving and seen a couple of large birds perched on a bare tree in the fields about 100 plus yards away. What caught my attention was that one of them was predominently white. I assumed it was a Heron so turned back to see if I could make it out.
Obviously they were large birds and as far as I could see it was two Cormorants.

The tree was beside a river so that would make sense. It was definately not a heron.

So my query is as follows and excuse my ignorance please.

I thought Cormorants were almost all black but this one was white on the front with dark wings and I assume a dark back. It was facing me and would remind you of the colour combination of a penquin.

Would this be a juvenile Bird or are there different types of cormorants ?

It would spread its wings as if drying them and ive seen them do this before.

I got photos but probably cannot post them here and they give an idea of what i was looking at but they were quite far away.

So just curious and i'm sure some of the experts here might be able to shed light on it. I do read this forum and enjoy it very much.

Thank you in advance.

Well I'm not an expert, but am interested to know what it might have been too, so I think if you can upload the photos it would be a good help when the experts roll in?!

You can probably host them on a site like imgur and put the link on thread?
I think anyway, but I'm terrible at uploading photos on boards still

There's some info here https://community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/f/identify-this/55808/adult-or-juvenile-grey-heron?pifragment-4285=1
on identifying the ages of herons, I didn't know the variances of colours till I read it!

Quoted from link:

"AGEING

4 types of age can be recognized:

Juvenile with grey forehead, crown and nape; upperparts without ornamental feathers.

1st year winter/2nd year spring with grey crown, streaked sooty black; dull black nape with ornamental feathers shorter and less glossy than adults.

2nd year autumn/3rd year spring similar to adults, but with grey forehead and only some white feathers on crown.

Adult with black sides and pink ornamental feathers on breast; uniform grey upperparts with pale grey ornamental feathers; pure white forehead and crown with black borders; long and glossy ornamental feathers on nape.

CAUTION: some adults can have grey crown, but always have white nape."

Here's hoping it will come to light with some help

Navanboyo

Thank you, I will look into the posting of photos later and see what I can do or I can pm someone if they feel it would help.

I am fairly certain it was a cormorant or cormorant type of bird as I see them here where I live on the Boyne and it had the same shape, size and charactistics.

The only thing making me curious was the amount of white because this is what stood out to me when I was driving, it was very distinctive.

Thanks again I appreciate it

Navanboyo

https://www.flickr.com/account/prefs/downloads/

Trying to upload a photo of said Bird

Navanboyo

https://www.flickr.com/photos/192074544@N06/50915086133/in/album-72157718188228533/

Navanboyo

Navanboyo

https://www.flickr.com/photos/192074544@N06/50915942322/in/album-72157718188228533/

happyday

I'm not sure from the photo but if you're on Facebook the Irish Wild Birds and Animals page is very helpful for identification.

lucalux

Great to get the photos up, I definitely would have done a double take too!

I'm coming up with a Juvenile Cormorant, inland area, and from BirdWatch Ireland I read this:

"Juvenile bird has very pale, even white, underparts and dark brown upperparts. Sub-adults have a variable amount of white in the underparts."

Some sightings here on Bird Sighting Ireland, maybe you could check for any recent ones in your area as well?
http://www.irishbirding.com/birds/web


Verry white on that photo with the classic cormorant wing-stretching pose!
Nice spot, hope someone can confirm though..

Navanboyo

Thanks for the replies I do apreciate it and to be honest having been a long time reader of the forum I am in awe of the knowledge displayed here. I have a huge interest but still just learning.

I have more photos and will put them up later if its helpful, but I don't want to be flooding the place with my poor enough efforts.

I have no issue sharing where the location was but reading posts before I think its sometimes frowned upon.

I think though it would be ok to say that this was in the North east of the country and approx 12 miles from the sea if that makes any difference. The tree was by a small enough river although obviously with all the recent rain it is much more in flood than normal.

I am sure the second Bird was a cormorant so I'm just guessing this one was a juvenile although it was as large if not slightly bigger.

Thanks again.

Navanboyo

https://www.flickr.com/photos/192074544@N06/50916636702/in/dateposted-public/


https://www.flickr.com/photos/192074544@N06/50916644992/in/dateposted-public/

Car99

Navanboyo wrote: »

https://www.flickr.com/photos/192074544@N06/50916636702/in/dateposted-public/


https://www.flickr.com/photos/192074544@N06/50916644992/in/dateposted-public/

The white one is a penguin pretending to be a bat

lucalux

Car99 wrote: »

The white one is a penguin pretending to be a bat

I didn't wanna say, but that was my first thought

lucalux

Navanboyo wrote: »

Thanks for the replies I do apreciate it and to be honest having been a long time reader of the forum I am in awe of the knowledge displayed here. I have a huge interest but still just learning.

I have more photos and will put them up later if its helpful, but I don't want to be flooding the place with my poor enough efforts.

I have no issue sharing where the location was but reading posts before I think its sometimes frowned upon.

I think though it would be ok to say that this was in the North east of the country and approx 12 miles from the sea if that makes any difference. The tree was by a small enough river although obviously with all the recent rain it is much more in flood than normal.

I am sure the second Bird was a cormorant so I'm just guessing this one was a juvenile although it was as large if not slightly bigger.

Thanks again.

Your photos are good, no need for photography superskills for bird ID's, and no need to say where exactly you are if you don't want to, but it's more to get an idea of the area, someone local might have seen something similar for example.

12 miles inland seems a bit much for shags to me? They're fairly similar to cormorants, so I think you're right on thinking cormorant, but I'm not sure of how many variants of cormorants we have here... Let's hope for the more expert among us to see this and give some certainty!

kylith

https://kimsmithdesigns.com/tag/how-to-tell-the-difference-between-great-cormorant-and-double-crested-cormorant/

Here’s a blog with something similar. A great cormorant

Navanboyo

https://www.flickr.com/photos/192074544@N06/shares/4wWr2M

Navanboyo

Thanks for all the replies. That last link re the Great Cormorant is interesting as the colour combination I seen reminded me of a penquin and it was larger than other Cormorants I have seen.

They seem however to not be a native of Ireland so I just dont know.

The white plumage was quite striking and extensive though

So I will contact Bird Watch Ireland tomorrow to see if they can shed any light on it and I will let you know what they think.

Thanks Again

OpenYourEyes

Great Cormorant is our standard Cormorant species in Ireland, and your bird is a juvenile, which have a white belly. Very striking on your bird (not always that clean white and obvious), but it's definitely a juvenile Cormorant nonetheless!

fryup

do we have cranes in ireland?

(too lazy to google and please no construction jokes)

Alun

fryup wrote: »

do we have cranes in ireland?

(too lazy to google and please no construction jokes)

Just the odd vagrant I think. They used to be very common here up until the 16th/17th century though apparently.

They've recently re-established themselves in Norfolk in eastern England after becoming extinct around the same time as here, so who knows, maybe they might make it over here in time.

OpenYourEyes

fryup wrote: »

do we have cranes in ireland?

(too lazy to google and please no construction jokes)

We get a small number (a handful) passing through on migration most years. There's a suspect case of them having bred in the midlands last year too. So the answer, on a practical level, is "not really".

HoteiMarkii

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

We get a small number (a handful) passing through on migration most years. There's a suspect case of them having bred in the midlands last year too. So the answer, on a practical level, is "not really".

A small flock of 5 Cranes flew over the Curragh one summer evening when I was walking the dog. Amazing to see. They were flying westward which would have taken them close to or over the Lough Boora area of the midlands.

Alun

I've tried searching, but is there any indication of exactly why they disappeared from Ireland and Britain so long ago? It was hardly down to intensive agricultural practices if it was in the 1500/1600's I assume.