Urile penicillatus
Silhouette: Caleb M. Gordon · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
Brandt's cormorant (Urile 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 German 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 19th century.
It was formerly classified in the genus Phalacrocorax, but a 2014 study supported reclassifying it and several other Pacific cormorant species into the genus Urile. The IOU followed this classification in 2021. The average size of a Brandt's cormorant is 4.6 pounds. They have a length of about 34 inches and their wingspan is 4 feet. During the breeding season, adults have a blue throat patch.
Brandt's cormorants live on the Pacific coast of... Wikipedia →
Begging call0:11
United States · 2016
© David Vander Pluym · XC354689 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Recording0:18
United States · 2021
© Cricket Raspet · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Channel Islands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Cabo Pulmo National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 3 | Bahía de Loreto National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 4 | El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 5 | Pacific Rim National Park Reserve | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Olympic National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Redwood National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Tijuana | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 3 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Seattle | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SeaWorld San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Townsend's Cormorant sighting in Olympic National Park on a given day, based on 643 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 54th most-seen of the 216 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Townsend's Cormorant in Olympic National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January to March, the lowest months. That is one of Olympic National Park's wettest months, with about 370 mm of rain against 35 mm in July.
Between 2 and 5 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Townsend's Cormorant sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
6th of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Townsend's Cormorant sightings, Olympic National Park ranks 6th at about 10%. The best odds are in Channel Islands National Park (United States, about 40%), Cabo Pulmo National Park (Mexico, about 20%) and Bahía de Loreto National Park (Mexico, about 20%).
Same family: Phalacrocoracidae
The closest relatives of the Townsend's Cormorant that you can see in Olympic National Park (family Phalacrocoracidae, Cormorants and Shags) are Pelagic Cormorant (about 30%) and Double-crested Cormorant (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Townsend's Cormorant is recorded against all the birds logged in Olympic National Park (643 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
