Close encounters of the bird kind

The bird sitting on my is a comorant, a bird used for fishing. The fisherman would tie a straw around the bird's neck to prevent the creature from swallowing its catch. I was in Guilin, a part of China that looks exactly like a Chinese landscape painting.

Comorants are cool. Apparently they only cost a few hundred Chinese Yuans fully trained. I'm going to lobby my boyfriend to let me buy one before the RMB starts to appreciate against the dollar.