Dr. Heather Hinam 馃崄 馃嚚馃嚘 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social 路 9d An interesting find on the shore the other day. I'm pretty sure it's either a common or red-breasted merganser. #birds 馃尶
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That beak is intense
So cool! In my mind I'd expected they would have serrated bills in but looking at some skulls this looks like a good call!
Okay, upon further research and input from other experts, I'm wrong. This is a double-crested cormorant. I'm guessing it was probably young because the skull is missing a few ossifications and the beak isn't super sharply curved.
The lack of a bony interorbital septum (bone in between the orbits) looks more similar to a cormorant. Waterfowl typically have more ossified orbital regions than cormorants, but I also have not looked at merganser skulls in a while.
Have you considered a cormorant?
Looks cormoranty to me
damn.... get well soon
Looks more cormorant