Cormorant

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(Redirected from Phalacrocorax)

Template:Alternateuses {{Taxobox | color = pink | name = Cormorants | image = Cormorant03262006.JPG | image_width = 200px | image_caption = Brandt's Cormorant, Phalacrocorax penicillatus | regnum = Animalia | phylum = Chordata | classis = Aves | ordo = Pelecaniformes | familia = Phalacrocoracidae | familia_authority = Reichenbach, 1850 | subdivision_ranks = Genera | subdivision =

}}

The Phalacrocoracidae family of birds is represented by about thirty 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.

Humans have historically exploited cormorants' fishing skills, in China and Japan, where they have been trained by fishermen. Traditional cormorant fishing can be watched in the city of Inuyama, in Aichi Prefecture in Japan. In Guilin, China, cormorant birds are famous for fishing on the shallow Lijiang River.

Medieval heraldry often times featured the outline of a Great Cormorant. The image resembled a christian cross.

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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.

Christopher Isherwood was obviously unaware of the distinction when he 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 either.

The scientific name is latinized Greek for phalakros (bald) and kora (raven).

The bird inspired at least one other poet, Amy Clampitt, to write a sonnet:

The Cormorant in Its Element
That bony potbellied arrow, wing-pumping along
impacably, 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.
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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 observed at depths of over 40 feet.

After fishing, cormorants go ashore to dry their wings by holding them out in the sun. 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.

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Species

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

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

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External links

da:Skarver de:Kormorane es:Phalacrocoracidae eo:Kormoranoj fr:Cormoran io:Kormorano he:קורמורן ימי lt:Kormoraniniai nl:Aalscholvers ja:ウ科 (Sibley) pl:Kormoranowate pt:Cormorão fi:Merimetsot sv:Skarvar zh:鸬鹚科

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