Hi Tweets,

>Check out the mystery cormorant at
>>http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/seabirdphotos.html

That had me running to Harrison's Seabirds...

>In fact, it matches no known cormorant in the world.

...where actually this bird looks a ringer for Cape Cormorant (Phalacrocorax
capensis) which has exactly the yellow facial pattern shown in all the phots
except the one at distance in the surf; however, Harrison says the bird is
"rather small and short-tailed." where the bird in phot 4 shows a pretty
long tail. The text says: "Breeding adults appear wholly black with bright
yellow facial skin."

The brightness of the yellow suggests that this bird's in Alternate, which
would make sense for a southern-hemisphere species. On my old browser, the
resolution isn't sufficient to see any "scaled appearance on mantle,
scapulars and wing-coverts."

So, a quick dive into Ian Sinclair's Field Guide to Birds of Southern
Africa, 2nd ed. (Collins 1987), and on p.51, there's your bird, Dennis. Cape
Cormorant. And longer-tailed in the photograph than Harrison's descriptive
text, but precisely as long as the bird in phot 4. A perfect match in
plumage feature and proportion.

So that would be a provisional ID, a ship-assisted (taken aboard as a pet
off the coast of Africa) alternate-plumaged Cape Cormorant P. capensis. But
the Recording Angel noted you "who risked life and limb oozing over the
rocks toward it(snip)..."

Michael Price The Sleep of Reason Gives Birth to Monsters
Vancouver BC Canada -Goya
mprice at mindlink.net