The red-faced cormorant was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

[3][4] The authors cited different translations of an account of Georg Wilhelm Steller's exploration of the Kamchatka Peninsula.

[7] The adult bird has glossy plumage that is a deep greenish blue in color, becoming purplish or bronze on the back and sides.

In breeding condition it has a double crest, and white plumes on the flanks, neck and rump, and the bare facial skin of the lores and around the eyes is a bright orange or red, giving the bird its name; although the coloration is less vivid outside the breeding season, the red facial skin is enough to distinguish it from the otherwise rather similar pelagic cormorant.

Analysis of stomach contents suggests that the red-faced cormorant is mainly a bottom feeder, taking cottids especially.