Wild Bird Wednesday 46 - Some Australian Cormorants

Along with gulls and pigeons, cormorants may be one of the most obvious birds that many non-birders see.  I think that there may be three reasons for this.  Their black and white or all black plumage makes them very distinctive.  They also tendency to loaf about on piers, jetties and rocks in a generally obvious and photogenic fashions.  And last, and no means least, they are sometimes called shags - and the less said about the better!

We have five cormorant species in Australia (and the Darter as well).  So, here is a whistle stop tour of four for these species.

There are three black and white species, and two all black ones.

The birds I see the most is the Little Pied Cormorant (Phalacrocorax melanoleucos) - which, as would be expected,  is small and black and white.  The length and colour of its beak and a long white eyebrow stripe are the key ID features here.

Little Pied Cormorant

Little Pied Cormorant

Slight larger (and much less widespread) is the Black-Faced Cormorant (Phalacrocorax fuscescens).  I don't see this bird very often - which may be due to me not "working through" all the cormorants I see sat on boats and jetties.  Here the key field mark in the adult is the black crown that extends all the way down to the eye, given the bird a black face!

Black-Faced Cormorant

Black-Faced Cormorants

It came as something of a surprise to me that I had no decent images of either Pied Cormorant (Phalacrocorax various) or Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo).  This is about the best I can do for the Great Cormorant, which I have just realised is the same species as the "Cormorant" in the UK.

Black-Faced and Great Cormorant (with Pacific and Silver Gull)

In keeping with their rather sensible names, the Little Black Cormorant (Phalacrocorax sulcirostris) is both all black and small.   Thats generally enough to be able to identify this species - but it does not pay to get over confident!

Little Black Cormorant

Little Black Cormorant

Although its not really all that clear the second of the LBC's is "panting" - passing air over the inside of its mouth to evaporate liquids and cool down.  Its the equivalent of sweating in mammals.

And here endeth this brief and incomplete tour of Australian cormorants!  And its over to you.

To participate in WBW, just click on the link below and off you go.  Don't forget to invite any new bloggers who may post bird images.