Michael Price wrote:

" ...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."

Good detective work, Michael! I was hoping for intelligent responses. The
Cape Cormorant was one I strongly considered at the time of the sighting,
but I eliminated it because the illustration in Harrison's seabird book,
which was the only book I had that had all world cormorants in it, shows a
black line running up the center of the yellow throat pouch. The mystery
bird, of course, has no such line. After a flurry of trying to get it
identified way back in 1980, including sending copies of slides to a few
seabird people who gave me no help, I essentially forgot about it. Only
recently did I think about it again, especially with regard to "Kenyon's
Shag," but I didn't pursue it in all the new books available, as I should
have.

But you're right; I looked in Sinclair's book, and it looks much like the
photo in there and also the photo in the Harrison photo guide to seabirds,
which wasn't available at the time. Once I became convinced that it didn't
match any living species, I just decided my camera and I must have been
hallucinating and dropped my search.

But the timing couldn't be better. I'm off to Africa in 10 days, and among
other places we will be going to Cape Town, where Cape Cormorants are
abundant. We even plan on going to a cormorantery, so I will have good
close-range opportunities for photography and observation. That may settle
it one way or another in my mind. If I'm convinced, I'll certainly publish
the record somewhere, with a big (?) as to origin of the bird, which seems
rather unlikely to get here on its own steam from just about halfway around
the world. But darn; one life bird less in South Africa!

My only slight disagreement with you is that if this bird was a Cape
Cormorant, it may have been in nonbreeding (Basic) condition, as the same
Sinclair guide mentions yellow-orange throat skin in breeding season,
duller in nonbreeding, and this bird's was canary yellow. I would argue
that July would be the nonbreeding season for a southern-hemisphere bird.
However, Handbook of Birds of the World states that it can breed in any
month, mostly Sep-Oct, so it's an open question.

I'm asking Tom Schooley to forward it to BIRDCHAT, so we can see if anyone
across the nation equals your quick and incisive response!

Dennis

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html