Double Crested Cormorant Coming in for landing at Everglades National Park, Florida
Double-Crested Cormorant
Phalacrocorax auritus
See the cormorant perched above,
A prehistoric-looking iridescent black bird
With a yellow-orange face and blue eyelids
Below two curly black crests on its head
Drying its four-foot-wide wingspan in the morning sun
After diving deep for its fishy prey.
No waterproofing on this bird’s wings
Unlike ducks and geese and swans
Whose down insulates against the chill.
Cormorants and anhingas
And a few other aquatic birds
Have wettable plumage
Superbly adapted to underwater fishing.