Editing Spectacled cormorant (section)

==Description==
[[File:Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.AVES.107865 - Phalacrocorax perspicillatus Pallas, 1811 - Spectacled Cormorant - specimen - video.webm|left|thumbtime=0:00|upright|thumb|Turnaround video of a specimen, [[Naturalis Biodiversity Center]]]]
The species was first identified by [[Georg Wilhelm Steller]] in 1741 on [[Vitus Bering]]'s disastrous second [[Kamchatka]] expedition. He described the bird as large, clumsy and almost flightless&nbsp;– though it was probably reluctant to fly rather than physically unable&nbsp;– and wrote "they weighed 12–14 pounds, so that one single bird was sufficient for three starving men." Though cormorants are normally notoriously bad-tasting, Steller says that this bird tasted delicious, particularly when it was cooked in the way of the native [[Kamchadals]], who encased the whole bird in clay, buried it, and baked it in a heated pit.<ref name="EllisNTB">{{cite book| last = Ellis| first = Richard| author-link = Richard Ellis (biologist) | title = No Turning Back: The Life and Death of Animal Species| url = https://archive.org/details/noturningbacklif00elli| url-access = registration| publisher = Harper Perennial | year = 2004| location = New York| page = [https://archive.org/details/noturningbacklif00elli/page/135 135]| isbn =0-06-055804-0 }}</ref>

With a body mass estimated to be from {{convert|3.5|to|6.8|kg|lb|abbr=on}} and a length up to around {{convert|100|cm|in|abbr=on}}, the spectacled cormorant was rather larger than all other known cormorants.<ref>Hume, J. P., & Walters, M. (2012). ''Extinct birds (Vol. 217)''. A&C Black.</ref><ref>Grzimek, B. (1972). ''Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia: Birds I-III''. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company.</ref> In a similar fashion to the extant [[flightless cormorant]], which may have rivaled it in length but not weight, the spectacled cormorant is thought to have at least largely lost the power of flight which is borne out by the reduced sternum and wing chord of museum specimens.<ref>Roots, C. (2006). ''Flightless birds''. Greenwood Publishing Group.</ref><ref name= King>King, R. J. (2013). ''The Devil's Cormorant: a Natural History''. University of New Hampshire Press.</ref> This species was largely glossy black in color with a reported greenish gloss that may have been fairly vivid in bright light.

A contrasting large white patch could be seen on its lower flanks just above the legs. Like other cormorants, they had small patches of bare skin about the face including a small gular patch and a small amount of bare skin around the eyes; these areas usually appeared to have been dull-yellow or grayish in hue, but during breeding stages, they may have changed to a bright orangey-reddish hue.<ref name="King" /> During breeding stages, they also had a prominent crest on their head. The bare skin around the eyes, as well as the crest, were not present in females.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Fuller |first=Errol |url=https://archive.org/details/extinctbirds00full/page/39 |title=Extinct Birds |publisher=Facts on File |year=1987 |isbn=0816018332 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/extinctbirds00full/page/39 39]}}</ref>