Cormorants and shags Temporal range: Late Oligocene – present | |
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Little pied cormorant Microcarbo melanoleucos | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Suliformes |
Family: | Phalacrocoracidae Reichenbach, 1850 |
Type genus | |
Phalacrocorax | |
Genera | |
Microcarbo Contents | |
Synonyms | |
Australocorax Lambrecht, 1931 |
Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) adopted a consensus taxonomy of seven genera. [1] The great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) and the common shag (Gulosus aristotelis) are the only two species of the family commonly encountered in Britain and Ireland [2] and "cormorant" and "shag" appellations have been later assigned to different species in the family somewhat haphazardly.
Cormorants and shags are medium-to-large birds, with body weight in the range of 0.35–5 kilograms (0.77–11.02 lb) and wing span of 60–100 centimetres (24–39 in). The majority of species have dark feathers. The bill is long, thin and hooked. Their feet have webbing between all four toes. All species are fish-eaters, catching the prey by diving from the surface. They are excellent divers, and under water they propel themselves with their feet with help from their wings; some cormorant species have been found to dive as deep as 45 metres (150 ft). They have relatively short wings due to their need for economical movement underwater, and consequently have among the highest flight costs of any flying bird. [3]
Cormorants nest in colonies around the shore, on trees, islets or cliffs. They are coastal rather than oceanic birds, and some have colonised inland waters. The original ancestor of cormorants seems to have been a fresh-water bird.[ citation needed ] They range around the world, except for the central Pacific islands.
"Cormorant" is a contraction derived either directly from Latin corvus marinus, "sea raven", or through Brythonic Celtic. Cormoran is the Cornish name of the sea giant in the tale of Jack the Giant Killer. Indeed, "sea raven" or analogous terms were the usual terms for cormorants in Germanic languages until after the Middle Ages. The French explorer André Thévet commented in 1558: "the beak [is] similar to that of a cormorant or other corvid", which demonstrates that the erroneous belief that the birds were related to ravens lasted at least to the 16th century.
No consistent distinction exists 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 Gulosus aristotelis (the European shag). "Shag" refers to the bird's crest, which the British forms of the great cormorant lack. As other species were encountered by English-speaking sailors and explorers elsewhere in the world, some were called cormorants and some shags, sometimes 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; for example, all species in the family which occur in New Zealand are known locally as shags, including four non-endemic species known as cormorant elsewhere in their range. Van Tets (1976) proposed to divide the family into two genera and attach the name "cormorant" to one and "shag" to the other, but this nomenclature has not been widely adopted.
Cormorants and shags are medium-to-large seabirds. They range in size from the pygmy cormorant (Microcarbo pygmaeus), at as little as 45 cm (18 in) and 340 g (12 oz), to the flightless cormorant (Nannopterum harrisi), at a maximum size 100 cm (39 in) and 5 kg (11 lb). The recently extinct spectacled cormorant (Urile perspicillatus) was rather larger, at an average size of 6.3 kg (14 lb). The majority, including nearly 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 have webbing between all four toes, as in their relatives.
Habitat varies from species to species: some are restricted to seacoasts, while others occur in both coastal and inland waters to varying degrees. They range around the world, except for the central Pacific islands.
All cormorants and shags 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, though some also propel themselves with their wings (see the picture, [4] commentary, [5] and existing reference video [6] ). Imperial shags fitted with miniaturized video recorders have been filmed diving to depths of as much as 80 metres (260 ft) to forage on the sea floor. [7]
After fishing, cormorants go ashore, and are frequently seen holding their wings out in the sun. All cormorants have preen gland secretions that are used ostensibly to keep the feathers waterproof. Some sources [8] state that cormorants have waterproof feathers while others say that they have water-permeable feathers. [9] [10] Still others suggest that the outer plumage absorbs water but does not permit it to penetrate the layer of air next to the skin. [11] The wing drying action is seen even in the flightless cormorant but not in the Antarctic shags [12] or red-legged cormorants. Alternate functions suggested for the spread-wing posture include that it aids thermoregulation [13] or digestion, balances the bird, or indicates presence of fish. A detailed study of the great cormorant concludes that it is without doubt [14] to dry the plumage. [15] [16]
Cormorants are colonial nesters, using trees, rocky islets, or cliffs. The eggs are a chalky-blue colour. There is usually one brood a year. Parents regurgitate food to feed their young.
![]() | This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: several paragraphs ("The cormorant family are...", "Several evolutionary groups are...", and all but the last sentence of "In recent years, three...") appear to have been written in the mid-2000s and minimally updated since then, and as such are highly outdated, requiring extensive revision to reflect a modern state of knowledge of the relationships of cormorants and their relatives.(June 2023) |
The genus Phalacrocorax, from which the family name Phalacrocoracidae is derived, is Latinised from Ancient Greek φαλακρόςphalakros "bald" and κόραξkorax "raven". [17] This is often thought to refer to the creamy white patch on the cheeks of adult great cormorants, or the ornamental white head plumes prominent in Mediterranean birds of this species, but is certainly not a unifying characteristic of cormorants.
The cormorant family are a group traditionally placed within the Pelecaniformes or, in the Sibley–Ahlquist taxonomy of the 1990s, the expanded Ciconiiformes. Pelecaniformes in the traditional sense—all waterbird groups with totipalmate foot webbing—are not a monophyletic group, even after the removal of the distantly-related tropicbirds. Their relationships and delimitation – apart from being part of a "higher waterfowl" clade which is similar but not identical to Sibley and Ahlquist's "pan-Ciconiiformes" – remain mostly unresolved. Notwithstanding, all evidence agrees that the cormorants and shags are closer to the darters and Sulidae (gannets and boobies), and perhaps the pelicans or even penguins, than to all other living birds. [18]
In recent years, three preferred treatments of the cormorant family have emerged: either to leave all living cormorants in a single genus, Phalacrocorax, or to split off a few species such as the imperial shag complex (in Leucocarbo) and perhaps the flightless cormorant. Alternatively, the genus may be disassembled altogether and in the most extreme case be reduced to the great, white-breasted and Japanese cormorants. [19] In 2014, a landmark study proposed a 7 genera treatment, which was adopted by the IUCN Red List and BirdLife International, and later by the IOC in 2021, standardizing it. [1] [20]
The cormorants and the darters have a unique bone on the back of the top of the skull known as the os nuchale or occipital style which was called a xiphoid process in early literature. This bony projection provides anchorage for the muscles that increase the force with which the lower mandible is closed. [21] [22] This bone and the highly developed muscles over it, the M. adductor mandibulae caput nuchale, are unique to the families Phalacrocoracidae and Anhingidae. [23] [24]
Several evolutionary groups are still recognizable. However, combining the available evidence suggests that there has also been a great deal of convergent evolution; for example the cliff shags are a convergent paraphyletic group. The proposed division into Phalacrocorax sensu stricto (or subfamily "Phalacrocoracinae") cormorants and Leucocarbo sensu lato (or "Leucocarboninae") shags [25] does have some degree of merit. [26] The resolution provided by the mtDNA 12S rRNA and ATPase subunits six and eight sequence data [26] is not sufficient to properly resolve several groups to satisfaction; in addition, many species remain unsampled, the fossil record has not been integrated in the data, and the effects of hybridisation – known in some Pacific species especially – on the DNA sequence data are unstudied.
A multigene molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 provided a genus-level phylogeny of the family. [20]
Phalacrocoracidae |
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As per the IOU, the IUCN Red List and BirdLife International, the family contains 7 genera: [1]
Image | Genus | Species |
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![]() | Microcarbo Bonaparte, 1856 |
Around Indian Ocean, one species extending from Central Asia into Europe. Mostly in freshwater habitat. Small (about 50–60 cm long), nondescript black to dark brown (except for one species with white underparts). |
![]() | Poikilocarbo Boetticher, 1935 |
Subtropical to subantarctic Pacific South America, ranging a bit into the southwestern Atlantic. Maritime. Mid-sized (around 75 cm), grey with scalloped wings and contrasting white/yellow/red neck mark and bare parts. Its high-pitched chirping calls are quite unlike those of other cormorants. |
![]() | Urile Bonaparte, 1855 |
Northern Pacific, one species extending into subtropical waters on the American West Coast. Maritime. Smallish to large (65–100 cm), generally black with metallic sheen (usually blue/green), in breeding plumage with bright bare facial skin in the eye region and two crests (crown and nape). |
| Phalacrocorax Brisson, 1760 |
Mostly around Indian Ocean, one species group extending throughout Eurasia and to Atlantic North America. Maritime to freshwater. Size very variable (60–100 cm), blackish with metallic sheen (usually bronze to purple) and/or white cheek and thigh patches or underside at least in breeding plumage; usually a patch of bare yellow skin at the base of the bill. |
![]() | Gulosus Montagu, 1813 |
Breeds in European Arctic, winters in Europe and North Africa. Maritime. Mid-sized (70–80 cm), glossy black, in breeding plumage with a forehead crest curled to the front. |
![]() | Nannopterum Sharpe, 1899 |
Throughout the Americas. Mostly freshwater. Smallish to large (65–100 cm), nondescript brownish-black. One species with white tufts on sides of head in breeding plumage. |
![]() | Leucocarbo Bonaparte, 1856 |
Generally Subantarctic, but extending farther north in South America; many oceanic-island endemics. Maritime. Smallish to largish (65–80 cm), typically black above, white below, and with bare yellow or red skin in the facial region. A circumpolar group of several species (the blue-eyed shag complex) is characterised by bright blue orbital skin. |
Prior to 2021, the IOU (or formerly the IOC) classified all these species in just three genera: Microcarbo, Leucocarbo, and a broad Phalacrocorax containing all remaining species; however, this treatment rendered Phalacrocorax deeply paraphyletic with respect to Leucocarbo. Other authorities, such as the Clements Checklist, formerly recognised only Microcarbo as a separate genus from Phalacrocorax.
For details, see the article "List of cormorant species".
The details of the evolution of the cormorants are mostly unknown. Even the technique of using the distribution and relationships of a species to figure out where it came from, biogeography, usually very informative, does not give very specific data for this probably rather ancient and widespread group. However, the closest living relatives of the cormorants and shags are the other families of the suborder Sulae—darters and gannets and boobies—which have a primarily Gondwanan distribution. Hence, at least the modern diversity of Sulae probably originated in the southern hemisphere.
While the Leucocarbonines are almost certainly of southern Pacific origin—possibly even the Antarctic which, at the time when cormorants evolved, was not yet ice-covered—all that can be said about the Phalacrocoracines is that they are most diverse in the regions bordering the Indian Ocean, but generally occur over a large area.
Similarly, the origin of the family is shrouded in uncertainties. Some Late Cretaceous fossils have been proposed to belong with the Phalacrocoracidae:
A scapula from the Campanian-Maastrichtian boundary, about 70 mya (million years ago), was found in the Nemegt Formation in Mongolia; it is now in the PIN collection. [27] It is from a bird roughly the size of a spectacled cormorant, and quite similar to the corresponding bone in Phalacrocorax. A Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous, c. 66 mya) right femur, AMNH FR 25272 from the Lance Formation near Lance Creek, Wyoming, is sometimes suggested to be the second-oldest record of the Phalacrocoracidae; this was from a rather smaller bird, about the size of a long-tailed cormorant. [28] However, cormorants likely originated much later, and these are likely misidentifications. [29]
As the Early Oligocene "Sula" ronzoni cannot be assigned to any of the sulid families—cormorants and shags, darters, and gannets and boobies—with certainty, the best interpretation is that the Phalacrocoracidae diverged from their closest ancestors in the Early Oligocene, perhaps some 30 million years ago, and that the Cretaceous fossils represent ancestral sulids, "pelecaniforms" or "higher waterbirds"; at least the last lineage is generally believed to have been already distinct and undergoing evolutionary radiation at the end of the Cretaceous. What can be said with near certainty is that AMNH FR 25272 is from a diving bird that used its feet for underwater locomotion; as this is liable to result in some degree of convergent evolution and the bone is missing indisputable neornithine features, it is not entirely certain that the bone is correctly referred to this group. [30]
Phylogenetic evidence indicates that the cormorants diverged from their closest relatives, the darters, during the Late Oligocene, indicating that most of the claims of Cretaceous or early Paleogene cormorant occurrences are likely misidentifications. [29]
During the late Paleogene, when the family presumably originated, much of Eurasia was covered by shallow seas, as the Indian Plate finally attached to the mainland. Lacking a detailed study, it may well be that the first "modern" cormorants were small species from eastern, south-eastern or southern Asia, possibly living in freshwater habitat, that dispersed due to tectonic events. Such a scenario would account for the present-day distribution of cormorants and shags and is not contradicted by the fossil record; as remarked above, a thorough review of the problem is not yet available.
Even when Phalacrocorax was used to unite all living species, two distinct genera of prehistoric cormorants became widely accepted today:
The proposed genus Oligocorax appears to be paraphyletic – the European species have been separated in Nectornis, and the North American ones placed in the expanded Phalacrocorax; the latter might just as well be included in Nannopterum. A Late Oligocene fossil cormorant foot from Enspel, Germany, sometimes placed in Oligocorax, would then be referable to Nectornis if it proves not to be too distinct. Limicorallus, meanwhile, was initially believed to be a rail or a dabbling duck by some. There are also undescribed remains of apparent cormorants from the Quercy Phosphorites of Quercy (France), dating to some time between the Late Eocene and the mid-Oligocene. All these early European species might belong to the basal group of "microcormorants", as they conform with them in size and seem to have inhabited the same habitat: subtropical coastal or inland waters. While this need not be more than convergence, the phylogeny of the modern (sub)genus Microcarbo– namely, whether the Western Eurasian M. pygmaeus is a basal or highly derived member of its clade – is still not well understood at all as of 2022.
Some other Paleogene remains are sometimes assigned to the Phalacrocoracidae, but these birds seem rather intermediate between cormorants and darters (and lack clear autapomorphies of either). Thus, they may be quite basal members of the Palacrocoracoidea. The taxa in question are:
The supposed Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene "Valenticarbo" is a nomen dubium and given its recent age probably not a separate genus.
The remaining fossil species are not usually placed in a modern phylogenetic framework. While the numerous western US species are most likely prehistoric representatives of the coastal Urile or inland Nannopterum, the European fossils pose much more of a problem due to the singular common shag being intermediate in size between the other two European cormorant lineages, and as of 2022 still of mysterious ancestry; notably, a presumably lost collection of Late Miocene fossils from the Odesa region may have contained remains of all three (sub)genera inhabiting Europe today. Similarly, the Plio-Pleistocene fossils from Florida have been allied with Nannopterum and even Urile, but may conceivably be Phalacrocorax; they are in serious need of revision since it is not even clear how many species are involved. Provisionally, the fossil species are thus all placed in Phalacrocorax here:
The former "Phalacrocorax" (or "Oligocorax") mediterraneus is now considered to belong to the bathornithid Paracrax antiqua . [33] "P." subvolans was actually a darter (Anhinga).
Humans have used cormorants' fishing skills in various places in the world. Archaeological evidence suggests that cormorant fishing was practised in Ancient Egypt, Peru, Korea and India, but the strongest tradition has remained in China and Japan, where it reached commercial-scale level in some areas. [36] In Japan, cormorant fishing is called ukai (鵜飼) and is performed by a fisherman known as an usho. [37] Traditional forms of ukai can be seen on the Nagara River in the city of Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, where cormorant fishing has continued uninterrupted for 1300 years, or in the city of Inuyama, Aichi. In Guilin, Guangxi, cormorants are famous for fishing on the shallow Li River. In Gifu, the Japanese cormorant (P. capillatus) is used; Chinese fishermen often employ great cormorants (P. carbo). [38] In Europe, a similar practice was also used on Doiran Lake in the region of Macedonia. [39] James VI and I appointed a keeper of cormorants, John Wood, and built ponds at Westminster to train the birds to fish. [40]
In a common technique, a snare is tied near the base of the bird's throat, which allows the bird only to swallow small fish. When the bird captures and tries to swallow a large fish, the fish is caught 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, but is still practised as a cultural tradition. [38] [36]
In Japan, environmental changes threaten traditional ukai because of reduced numbers of the ayu river fish that cormorants are used to catch. [37]
Cormorants feature in heraldry and medieval ornamentation, usually in their "wing-drying" pose, which was seen as representing the Christian cross, and symbolizing nobility and sacrifice. For John Milton in Paradise Lost , the cormorant symbolizes greed: perched atop the Tree of Life, Satan took the form of a cormorant as he spied on Adam and Eve during his first intrusion into Eden. [41]
In some Scandinavian areas, they are considered good omen; in particular, in Norwegian tradition spirits of those lost at sea come to visit their loved ones disguised as cormorants. [41] For example, the Norwegian municipalities of Røst, Loppa and Skjervøy have cormorants in their coat of arms. The symbolic liver bird of Liverpool is commonly thought to be a cross between an eagle and a cormorant.
In Homer's epic poem The Odyssey, Odysseus (Ulysses) is saved by a compassionate sea nymph who takes the form of a cormorant.
In 1853, a woman wearing a dress made of cormorant feathers was found on San Nicolas Island, off the southern coast of California. She had sewn the feather dress together using whale sinews. She is known as the Lone Woman of San Nicolas and was later baptised "Juana Maria" (her original name is lost). The woman had lived alone on the island for 18 years before being rescued. When removed from San Nicolas, she brought with her a green cormorant dress she made; this dress is reported to have been removed to the Vatican.[ citation needed ] Her story, which includes the feather dress, was fictionalized in the children's novel Island of the Blue Dolphins .
The bird has inspired numerous writers, including Amy Clampitt, who wrote a poem called "The Cormorant in its Element". The species she described may have been the pelagic cormorant, which is the only species in the temperate U.S. with the "slim head ... vermilion-strapped" and "big black feet" that she mentions.[ citation needed ]
A cormorant representing Blanche Ingram appears in the first of the fictional paintings by Jane in Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre :
One gleam of light lifted into relief a half-submerged mast, on which sat a cormorant, dark and large, with wings flecked with foam; its beak held a gold bracelet, set with gems, that I had touched with as brilliant tints as my palette could yield, and as glittering distinctness as my pencil could impart.
In the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger", Dr. Watson warns that if there are further attempts to get at and destroy his private notes regarding his time with Holmes, "the whole story concerning the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant will be given to the public. There is at least one reader who will understand."
A cormorant is humorously mentioned as having had linseed oil rubbed into it by a wayward pupil during the "Growth and Learning" segment of the 1983 Monty Python movie Monty Python's The Meaning of Life .[ citation needed ]
The cormorant served as the hood ornament for the Packard automobile brand. [42]
Cormorants (and books about them written by a fictional ornithologist) are a recurring fascination of the protagonist in Jesse Ball's 2018 novel Census.
The Pokémon Cramorant, featured in the 8th generation of the video game series, closely resembles a cormorant in both design and name.
The cormorant was chosen as the emblem for the Ministry of Defence Joint Services Command and Staff College at Shrivenham. A bird famed for flight, sea fishing and land nesting was felt to be particularly appropriate for a college that unified leadership training and development for the Army, Navy and Royal Air Force.[ citation needed ]
After a member produced a mock magazine cover from a photograph of roosting cormorants, the bird became the unofficial mascot of the Pentax Discuss Mailing List with many posts dedicated to discussion of the photography of the species. [43]
The darters, anhingas, or snakebirds are mainly tropical waterbirds in the family Anhingidae, which contains a single genus, Anhinga. There are four living species, three of which are very common and widespread while the fourth is rarer and classified as near-threatened by the IUCN. The term snakebird is usually used without any additions to signify whichever of the completely allopatric species occurs in any one region. It refers to their long thin neck, which has a snake-like appearance when they swim with their bodies submerged, or when mated pairs twist it during their bonding displays. "Darter" is used with a geographical term when referring to particular species. It alludes to their manner of procuring food, as they impale fishes with their thin, pointed beak. The American darter is more commonly known as the anhinga. It is sometimes called "water turkey" in the southern United States; though the anhinga is quite unrelated to the wild turkey, they are both large, blackish birds with long tails that are sometimes hunted for food.
Phalacrocorax is a genus of fish-eating birds in the cormorant family Phalacrocoracidae. Members of this genus are also known as the Old World cormorants.
The pelagic cormorant, also known as Baird's cormorant or violet-green cormorant, is a small member of the cormorant family Phalacrocoracidae. Analogous to other smallish cormorants, it is also called the pelagic shag occasionally. This seabird lives along the coasts of the northern Pacific; during winter it can also be found in the open ocean. Pelagic cormorants have relatively short wings due to their need for economical movement underwater, and consequently have the highest flight costs of any bird.
The bird family Sulidae comprises the gannets and boobies. Collectively called sulids, they are medium-large coastal seabirds that plunge-dive for fish and similar prey. The 10 species in this family are often considered congeneric in older sources, placing all in the genus Sula. However, Sula and Morus (gannets) can be readily distinguished by morphological, behavioral, and DNA sequence characters. Abbott's booby (Papasula) is given its own genus, as it stands apart from both in these respects. It appears to be a distinct and ancient lineage, maybe closer to the gannets than to the true boobies.
The European shag or common shag is a species of cormorant. It is the only member of the monotypic genus Gulosus. It breeds around the rocky coasts of western and southern Europe, southwest Asia and north Africa, mainly wintering in its breeding range except for the northernmost birds. In Britain this seabird is usually referred to as simply the shag. The scientific genus name derives from the Latin for glutton. The species name aristotelis commemorates the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
The Indian cormorant or Indian shag is a member of the cormorant family. It is found mainly along the inland waters of the Indian Subcontinent but extends west to Sind and east to Thailand and Cambodia. It is a gregarious species that can be easily distinguished from the similar sized little cormorant by its blue eyes, small head with a sloping forehead and a long narrow bill ending in a hooked tip.
The little cormorant is a member of the cormorant family of seabirds. Slightly smaller than the Indian cormorant it lacks a peaked head and has a shorter beak. It is widely distributed across the Indian Subcontinent and extends east to Java, where it is sometimes called the Javanese cormorant. It forages singly or sometimes in loose groups in lowland freshwater bodies, including small ponds, large lakes, streams and sometimes coastal estuaries. Like other cormorants, it is often found perched on a waterside rock with its wings spread out after coming out of the water. The entire body is black in the breeding season but the plumage is brownish, and the throat has a small whitish patch in the non-breeding season. These birds breed gregariously in trees, often joining other waterbirds at heronries.
The red-faced cormorant, red-faced shag or violet shag, is a bird species of the family Phalacrocoracidae.
The rock shag, also known as the Magellanic cormorant, is a marine cormorant found around the southernmost coasts of South America. Its breeding range is from around Valdivia, Chile, south to Cape Horn and Tierra del Fuego, and north to Punta Tombo in Argentina. In winter it is seen further north, with individuals reaching as far as Santiago, Chile on the west coast and Uruguay on the east. The birds also breed around the coasts of the Falkland Islands.
Valenticarbo is a supposed genus of extinct bird that lived during the Late Pliocene or Early Pleistocene of South Asia. It contains only the type species, V. praetermissus.
The black-faced cormorant, also known as the black-faced shag, is a medium-sized member of the cormorant family. Upperparts, including facial skin and bill, are black, with white underparts. It is endemic to coastal regions of southern Australia.
The imperial shag or imperial cormorant is a black and white cormorant native to southern South America, primarily in rocky coastal regions, but locally also at large inland lakes. Some taxonomic authorities, including the International Ornithologists' Union, place it in the genus Leucocarbo, others in the genus Phalacrocorax. It is also known as the blue-eyed shag, blue-eyed cormorant and by many other names, and is one of a larger group of cormorants called blue-eyed shags. The taxonomy is very complex, and several former subspecies are often considered separate species.
The red-legged cormorant, also known as the red-legged shag, red-footed cormorant, red-footed shag, Gaimard's cormorant and grey cormorant, is a species of cormorant resident to the coastline of South America. It is the only member of the genus Poikilocarbo. It is non-colonial unlike most seabirds. The red-legged cormorant has not been observed wing-spreading, which is unusual among cormorant species.
The Chatham shag, also known as the Chatham Island shag, is a species of bird in the cormorant and shag family, Phalacrocoracidae. It is endemic to the Chatham Islands of New Zealand. For a long time the species was placed in the genus Phalacrocorax; today it is mostly placed with the other blue-eyed shags of New Zealand and Antarctica in the genus Leucocarbo. Its closest relative is the Otago shag of South Island.
Microcarbo is a genus of fish-eating birds, known as cormorants, of the family Phalacrocoracidae. The genus was formerly subsumed within Phalacrocorax.
The order Suliformes is an order of birds recognised by the International Ornithologist's Union. Regarding the recent evidence that the traditional Pelecaniformes is polyphyletic, it has been suggested that the group be divided to reflect the true evolutionary relationships; a 2017 study indicated that they are most closely related to Otidiformes (bustards) and Ciconiiformes (storks).
Stewart Island shag or Stewart shag was the former name of a species of cormorant that was split into two species as a result of genetic studies. The two resulting species are:
The Antarctic shag, sometimes referred to as the imperial cormorant, king cormorant, imperial shag, blue-eyed shag or Antarctic cormorant, is the only species of the cormorant family found in the Antarctic. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the Imperial shag.
Anhinga pannonica is an extinct species of darter from the Miocene of Europe and Africa. Described in 1916, A. pannonica is the only species of darter to have existed in Europe and is notably larger than most extant species, with an estimated weight of 3.3 kg (7.3 lb). The species likely went extinct as the climate continued to cool towards the end of the Miocene and beginning Pliocene, heavily effecting the darter that would have required a subtropical or tropical climate to survive.
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