Kenai Birding Festival

Red-faced cormorant

Written by kenaibirding Saturday, 27 November 2010 10:15

Red-faced cormorants (Phalacrocorax urile) world breeding population is estimated at 155,000 individuals.  Alaska has approximately 20,000 birds.  On the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska they can be found in Seward and Homer.

They nest in widely dispersed colonies on steep, inaccessible cliff faces.  Breeding takes place in a narrow band from the Gulf of Alaska to the central and western Aleutian Islands, through the Bering Sea to Russia, and on to northern Sea of Japan.  The preferred diet of these birds is solitary fish or invertebrates found near the bottom.  They use their feet for propulsion underwater.