English: DID YOU KNOW !!!

Binomial name : Microcarbo niger (Vieillot, 1817) Class: Aves Family: Phalacrocoracidae Genus: Microcarbo Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Order: Suliformes Species: M. niger

Cormorants, like most waterfowl, eat fish and shellfish. They are expert swimmers and can dive up to 100 feet deep to catch fish. They can stay underwater for more than one minute! The Little Cormorant can dive to considerable depths, but usually feeds in shallow water. It frequently brings prey to the surface. A wide variety of fish are taken. Cormorant, also called shag , any member of about 26 to 30 species of water birds constituting the family Phalacrocoracidae (order Pelecaniformes or Suliformes). The name cormorant might sound like a name for an insect, but cormorants are actually large water birds. Cormorants live in coastal areas or near lakes and rivers. They are usually black, brown or grayish. During the mating season, some cormorants develop brilliant white or blue patches on their throats or thighs. Cormorants inhabit seacoasts, lakes, and some rivers. The nest may be made of seaweed and guano on a cliff or of sticks in a bush or tree. The two to four chalky eggs, pale blue when fresh, hatch in three to five weeks, and the young mature in the third year.

FUNNY FACTS ON LITTLE CORMORANT!!! Cormorants have short wings for a flying bird due to their need to swim. Because of this they have the highest flight cost of any flying bird.

The species name comes from the Greek words phalakros meaning “bald” and korax meaning “raven.”

Cormorants share many features of another kind of bird – the shag. Depending on whom you ask, their might not be any relevant distinction at all since “cormorant” refers to a number of different birds.

All versions of the cormorant have glands that secretes an oil used for keeping the feathers waterproof. However this gland is not efficient enough so cormorants are quite often seen with their wings spread out in or to dry them.

Cormorants are pellet-makers. They create pellets out of the bones and scales of the fish they eat and spit it out, much like some owls.

Cormorants build nests on rocky crags to protect their babies. Sometimes they use old blue heron nests high in trees.

Cormorants nest in colonies and drop their poop on trees, bushes and rocks. Because so many cormorants nest in one place, their poop can stain rocks or even kill trees!

Cormorant mothers and fathers take turns sitting on their eggs. Once the babies are born, their parents feed them half-eaten fish.

Cormorants are sometimes harmed by pollution or oil in the water.