Birds Guide

Cormorants
Brandt's Cormorant, Phalacrocorax penicillatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia   Phylum: Chordata   Class: Aves   Order: Pelecaniformes   Family: Phalacrocoracidae Reichenbach, 1850
Genera
Nannopterum Phalacrocorax Leucocarbo

The Phalacrocoracidae family of birds is represented by 38 species of cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, but in the one most commonly used, all but three species are placed in a single genus Phalacrocorax, the exceptions being the Galapagos' Flightless Cormorant, the Kerguelen Shag and the Imperial Shag.

Contents 1 Names 2 Characteristics 3 Species 4 Cormorants' fishing 5 Cultural references 6 References 7 External links

Names

There is no consistent distinction between cormorants and shags. The names "cormorant" and "shag" were originally the common names of the two species of the family found in Great Britain, Phalacrocorax carbo (now referred to by ornithologists as the Great Cormorant) and P. aristotelis (the Common Shag). "Shag" refers to the bird's crest, which the British forms of the Great Cormorant lack. As other species were discovered by English-speaking sailors and explorers elsewhere in the world, some were called cormorants and some shags, depending on whether they had crests or not. Sometimes the same species is called a cormorant in one part of the world and a shag in another, e.g. the Great Cormorant is called the Black Shag in New Zealand (the birds found in Australasia have a crest that is absent in European members of the species). Some modern classifications of the family have divided it into two genera and have tried to attach the name "Cormorant" to one and "Shag" to the other, but this flies in the face of common usage and has not been widely adopted.

The scientific genus name is latinized Ancient Greek, from phalakros (bald) and korax (raven). "Cormorant" is a contraction derived from Latin corvus marinus, "sea raven". Indeed, "sea raven" or analogous terms were the usual terms for cormorants in Germanic languages until after the Middle Ages, and the erroneous belief that these birds were related to ravens lasted at least to the 16th century:

"...le bec semblable ŕ celuy d'un cormaran, ou autre corbeau." (...the beak similar to that of a cormorant or other corvids."; Thevet, 1558).

Characteristics

Cormorants and shags are medium-to-large seabirds. The majority, including all Northern Hemisphere species, have mainly dark plumage, but some Southern Hemisphere species are black and white, and a few (e.g. the Spotted Shag of New Zealand) are quite colourful. Many species have areas of coloured skin on the face (the lores and the gular skin) which can be bright blue, orange, red or yellow, typically becoming more brightly coloured in the breeding season. The bill is long, thin, and sharply hooked. Their feet are four-toed and webbed, a distinguishing feature among the Pelecaniformes order.

They are coastal rather than oceanic birds, and some have colonised inland waters. They range around the world, except for the central Pacific islands.

All are fish-eaters, dining on small eels, fish, and even water snakes. They dive from the surface, though many species make a characteristic half-jump as they dive, presumably to give themselves a more streamlined entry into the water. Under water they propel themselves with their feet. Some cormorant species have been found, using depth gauges, to dive to depths of as much as 45 metres.

After fishing, cormorants go ashore, and are frequently seen holding their wings out in the sun; it is assumed that this is to dry them. Unusually for a water bird, their feathers are not waterproofed. This may help them dive quickly, since their feathers do not retain air bubbles.

Cormorants are colonial nesters, using trees, rocky islets, or cliffs. The eggs are a chalky-blue colour. There is usually one brood a year. The young are fed through regurgitation. They typically have deep, ungainly bills which make it obvious that they are related to pelicans.

Species

For an alternative scientific classification, see Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy.

• Genus Phalacrocorax
  • Brandt's Cormorant, Phalacrocorax penicillatus
    Double-crested Cormorant or White-crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus
    Great Cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo
    Neotropic Cormorant, Phalacrocorax brasilianus
    Olivaceous Cormorant or Mexican Cormorant, Phalacrocorax olivaceus
    Pelagic Cormorant or Baird's Cormorant, Phalacrocorax pelagicus
    Red-faced Cormorant, Phalacrocorax urile
    Guanay Cormorant , Phalacrocorax bougainvillii (off Peru, guano collected from nesting colonies of this bird is used to produce internationally traded commercial fertilizer)
    Little Black Cormorant, Phalacrocorax sulcirostris
    Indian Cormorant, Phalacrocorax fuscicollis
    Cape Cormorant, Phalacrocorax capensis
    Socotran Cormorant, Phalacrocorax nigrogularis
    Wahlberg's Cormorant or Bank Cormorant, Phalacrocorax neglectus
    Temminck's Cormorant, Phalacrocorax capillatus
    Common Shag, Phalacrocorax aristotelis
    Rock Shag, Phalacrocorax magellanicus
    Long-tailed Cormorant, Phalacrocorax africanus
    White-breasted Cormorant, Phalacrocorax lucidus
    Crowned Cormorant, Phalacrocorax coronatus
    Little Cormorant, Phalacrocorax niger
    Pygmy Cormorant, Phalacrocorax pygmaeus
    Pitt Cormorant or Featherstone's Shag Phalacrocorax featherstoni
    Pied Cormorant or Yellow-faced Cormorant, Phalacrocorax varius
    King Shag, Phalacrocorax carunculatus
    Black-faced Cormorant, Phalacrocorax fuscescens
    Spectacled Cormorant, Phalacrocorax perspicillatus (extinct)
    Red-footed Shag, Phalacrocorax gaimardi
    Spotted Shag Phalacrocorax punctatus
    White-bellied Shag, Phalacrocorax albiventer
    Little Pied Cormorant, Phalacrocorax melanoleucos
    Stewart Island Shag, Phalacrocorax chalconotus
    Chatham Shag, Phalacrocorax onslowi
    Auckland Shag, Phalacrocorax colensoi
    Campbell Shag, Phalacrocorax campbelli
    Bounty Shag, Phalacrocorax ranfurlyi
    Flightless Cormorant, Phalacrocorax harrisi (previously Nannopterum harrisi) (confined to the Galapagos Islands where, through evolution, its wings have shrunk to the size of a penguin's flippers)
• Genus Leucocarbo
  • Imperial Shag (Blue eyed Shag), Leucocarbo atriceps (Previously Antarctic, South Georgian, Heard, Crozet, and Macquarie Shags, Phalacrocorax bransfieldensis, georgianus, nivalis, melanogenis, and purpurascens.)
    Kerguelen Shag, Leucocarbo verrocosus (Previously P. verrocosus.)

The King Shag of New Zealand has a number of races previously considered as full species.

Cormorants' fishing

Humans have historically exploited cormorants' fishing skills, in China, Japan, and Macedonia, where they have been trained by fishermen. In Japan, traditional cormorant fishing can be seen in Gifu City, in Gifu Prefecture, where it has continued uninterrupted for 1300 years, or in the city of Inuyama, in Aichi Prefecture. In Guilin, China, cormorant birds are famous for fishing on the shallow Lijiang River. A snare is tied near the base of the bird's throat, a snare that allows the bird only to swallow small fish. When the bird captures and tries to swallow a large fish, the fish gets stuck in the bird's throat. When the bird returns to the fisherman's raft, the fisherman helps the bird to remove the fish from its throat. The method is not as common today, since more efficient methods of catching fish have been developed.

Cultural references

• Cormorants feature quite commonly in heraldry and medieval ornamentation, usually in their "wing-drying" pose, which was seen as representing the Christian cross. The species depicted is most likely to be the Great Cormorant.

• On the other hand, in Milton's Paradise Lost, Satan takes on the form of a cormorant.

• Christopher Isherwood wrote the poem

"The common cormorant or shag

Lays eggs inside a paper bag,

The reason you will see no doubt

It is to keep the lightning out.

But what these unobservant birds

Have never noticed is that herds

Of wandering bears may come with buns

And steal the bags to hold the crumbs."

His information about the bird's nesting habits shouldn't be relied on.

 

• In addition to the comic verse quoted above, the bird inspired at least one other poet, Amy Clampitt, to write the sonnet below; it is not obvious which species she was referring to, since all members of the family share the characteristic behavioural and morphological features that the poem celebrates.

The Cormorant in Its Element

That bony potbellied arrow, wing-pumping along

implacably, with a ramrod's rigid adherence,

airborne, to the horizontal, discloses talents

one would never have guessed at. Plummeting

waterward, big black feet splayed for a landing

gear, slim head turning and turning, vermilion-

strapped, this way and that, with a lightning glance

over the shoulder, the cormorant astounding-

ly, in one sleek involuted arabesque, a vertical

turn on a dime, goes into the inimitable

vanishing-and-emerging-from-under-the-briny-

deep act which, unlike the works of Homo Houdini,

is performed for reasons having nothing at all

to do with ego, guilt, ambition, or even money.

• Colin Meloy mentions the cormorant in the song "The Island: Come and See, The Landlord's Daughter, You'll Not Feel The Drowning" on The Crane Wife, a 2006 album by the Decemberists.

• In the video game Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, the Gelb Squadron is also known as "The Coupled Cormorants." The callsign of Gelb 2 (2nd Lieutenant Rainer Altman) is "Cormorant." Their squadron insignia includes a cormorant with goggles.

References

• Thevet, F. André (1558): [About birds of Ascension Island]. In: Les singularitez de la France Antarctique, autrement nommee Amerique, & de plusieurs terres & isles decouvertes de nostre temps: 39-40. Maurice de la Porte heirs, Paris. Fulltext at Gallica

External links

• Cormorants (Phalacracorax carbo) in the British Isles
• Species Listing
• Cormorant videos on the Internet Bird Collection