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The Brandt's Cormorant (Phalacrocorax penicillatus) is
a strictly marine bird of the cormorant family of seabirds
that inhabits the Pacific coast of North America. It ranges,
in the summer, from Alaska to the Gulf of California,
but the population north of Vancouver Island migrates
south during the winter. Its specific name, penicillatus
is Latin for a painter's brush (pencil of hairs), in reference
to white plumes on its neck and back during the early
breeding season. The common name honors the Russian naturalist
Johann Friedrich von Brandt of the Academy of Sciences
at St. Petersburg, who described the species from specimens
collected on expeditions to the Pacific during the early
1800s. Brandt's Cormorants feed either singly or in flocks,
and are adaptable in prey choice and undersea habitat.
It feeds on small fish from the surface to sea floor,
obtaining them, like all cormorants, by pursuit diving
using its feet for propulsion.
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The
Brandt's Cormorant (Phalacrocorax penicillatus) is a strictly
marine bird of the cormorant family of seabirds that inhabits
the Pacific coast of North America. It ranges, in the
summer, from Alaska to the Gulf of California, but the
population north of Vancouver Island migrates south during
the winter. Its specific name, penicillatus is Latin for
a painter's brush (pencil of hairs), in reference to white
plumes on its neck and back during the early breeding
season. The common name honors the Russian naturalist
Johann Friedrich von Brandt of the Academy of Sciences
at St. Petersburg, who described the species from specimens
collected on expeditions to the Pacific during the early
1800s. Brandt's Cormorants feed either singly or in flocks,
and are adaptable in prey choice and undersea habitat.
It feeds on small fish from the surface to sea floor,
obtaining them, like all cormorants, by pursuit diving
using its feet for propulsion. |
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