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From: sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu (Daan Sandee)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Bird War Victims
Message-ID: <2030@sun13.scri.fsu.edu>
Date: 28 Jan 91 15:21:55 GMT
References: <11153@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
Sender: news@sun13.scri.fsu.edu
Organization: SCRI, Florida State University
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In article <11153@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu> mike@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Mike W. Burger) writes:
>	I have seen only one type of oiled bird from the slicks
>in the Persian Gulf.  Who knows what species of sea birds are
>at risk in that part of the world?  Are there any species that
>are both endangered and found only in that area, thus subject
>to extinction danger from war-related activities?

The bird we all saw on the news was a cormorant. 
There are two cormorants in the region : Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo),
a winter visitor, and Pygmy Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pygmeus), a resident.
Neither is threatened in general, though both may be locally endangered in
parts of their distribution. 
Without something to judge size it was a bit difficult, but I *think* the one 
I saw on the news was a Pygmy Cormorant (a) by the shape of the head and (b)
because through the oil I thought I could see a brown color on the head.
I'll see if I can dig out something about endangered species in the Gulf.

Daan Sandee                                           sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052  (904) 644-7045