robertmercer's Identifications

I was walking around lake Alice I saw this double-crested cormorant. It was almost noon so it was very hot and sunny outside. The bird was standing on a log in Lake Alice. I know the organism is in the class Aves as it has feathers and a beak. I also know the organism is in the subclass Neognathae as it is able to fly. Being at a distance from this bird I had to really think about the order it belongs too. I don't think its legs, neck, or beak is long enough to be Pelicaniformes. And despite my lab manual telling me this bird is common around Lake Alice, I figured it had to belong to order Suliformes due to its location. In order to be more sure I really would need a closer look. Some diagnostic characteristics are its totipalmate feet, gular pouch, obsolete nostrils, and salt glands. Obviously for some of these features I would need to dissect the bird but if I had just gotten closer (or had a better camera) I could've seen the feet. I wasn't able to identify the bird further than order as we did not cover bird families in lab.

I am confident that this is a Cormorant and being at least 30 yards and having only an iPhone camera I was able to observe this animal at length for three hours watching it dive and fish while swimming with the family of Canada Geese raising their goslings on the opposite bank of this small res. I’ve tried enlarging the phots but they then become so grainy that’s the details are lost.
I have several videos of the bird driving and eating it’s catch.

On large inland bodies of water this bird can often be seen , not so on small ponds and streams .