A few kilometers the Transpantaneira officially begins, a bridge give views to a very open countryside. There is busy fighting in the low water beside the bridge. It is fascinating to observe the fish-catching Neotropic Cormorants (Phalacrocorax brasilianus). A feast for the eyes are the Cormorants, who playfully fetch the fish out of the water, hold them with their beak tips, do throw fish at 20m before my eyes and devour them. Again and again one appears, sometimes it has even impaled a fish with his lower beak. The fish are not big; it could be a small catfish species. Nevertheless, the Neotropic Cormorants obviously take an extensive play with the prey. It seems that a mutual fish hunt is also carried out in the group, with several individuals swimming in a row on the water. This is all associated with a lot of excitement in the group and mutual assertiveness gives nice action packed pictures.
The Neotropic Cormorants inhabits the Americas from the southern USA to Tierra del Fuego. The species is quite easy to determine. Features indicative of an Neotropic Cormorant are a pointed rear surface of the featherless skin connecting the lower jaw of the beak with the bird’s neck, a long, wedge-shaped tail and a rather small beak with little pronounced thickening at the top. Like all cormorants, the Neotropic Cormorants prefers to prey trailing fish under water and then catching it. The hunt is often done in groups, Continue reading Neotropic Cormorants along the Transpantaneira/ Brazil