Indian Cormorant

Indian Cormorant
In breeding plumage in Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Pelecaniformes
Family: Phalacrocoracidae
Genus: Phalacrocorax
Species: P. fuscicollis
Binomial name
Phalacrocorax fuscicollis
Stephens, 1826

The Indian Cormorant or Indian Shag (Phalacrocorax fuscicollis) is a member of the cormorant family. It is found mainly along the inland waters of the Indian Subcontinent but extending 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 eye, small head with a sloping forehead and a long narrow bill ending in a hooked tip.

Contents

Description

Measurements
Length 510–535 mm (20–21 in)
475–510 mm (19–20 in)
Culmen 54–58 mm (2.1–2.3 in)
Tail 138–142 mm (5.4–5.6 in)
94–96 mm (3.7–3.8 in)
Tarsus 47–52 mm (1.9–2.0 in)

This medium sized bronze brown cormorant is scalloped in black on the upper plumage, lacks a crest and has a small and slightly peaked head with a long narrow bill that ends in a hooked tip. The eye is blue and bare yellow facial skin during the non-breeding season. Breeding birds have a short white ear tuft. In some plumages it has a white throat but the white is restricted below the gape unlike in the much larger Great Cormorant. Sexes are similar, but non-breeding adults and juveniles are browner.[2]

Habitat and distribution

This cormorant fishes gregariously in inland rivers or large wetlands of peninsular India and northern part of Sri Lanka. It also occurs in estuaries and mangroves but not on the open coast. They breed very locally in mixed species breeding colonies.[2] In some seasons they have been noted as abundant in the harbour of Karachi. They extend northeast to Assam and eastward into Thailand, Burma and Cambodia.[3][4][5][6]

Behaviour

The breeding season is July to February but depends on rainfall and water conditions. In northern India, they breed from July to February and in Sri Lanka, between November and February. The nest is a platform of twigs placed with a heronry placed in the forks of partially submerged trees or those growing on islands. The nests are placed in close proximity with other Indian Cormorants or with storks and other waterbirds in dense colonies, often with several tiers of nests. The usual clutch is 3 to 5 eggs which are bluish green and with a chalky surface.[3]

The Indian Cormorant makes short dives to capture fish and a group will often fish communally, forming a broad front to drive fish into a corner.[3]

References

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2009). "Phalacrocorax fuscicollis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/144635. 
  2. ^ a b c Rasmussen PC & JC Anderton (2005). Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide. Volume 2. Smithsonian Institution & Lynx Edicions. p. 52. 
  3. ^ a b c d Ali S & SD Ripley (1978). Handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan. Volume 1 (2 ed.). New Delhi: Oxford University Press. pp. 39–41. 
  4. ^ Thomas WW & CM Poole (2003). "An annotated list of the birds of Cambodia from 1859 to 1970". Forktail 19: 103–127. http://www.www.orientalbirdclub.org/publications/forktail/19pdfs/Thomas-Cambodia.pdf. 
  5. ^ Sashikumar, C (1991). "Occurrence of the Indian Shag Phalacrocorax fuscicollis Stephens in Kerala". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 88 (3): 442. 
  6. ^ Kannan, V; R Manakadan; P Rao; KK Mohapatra; S Sivakumar and V Santharam (2008). "The waterbirds of Pulicat lake, Andhra PRadesh-Tamil Nadu, India, including those of the adjoining wetlands and heronries". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 105 (2): 162–180. http://www.pulicatlake.org/PulicatWaterbirds-Paper.pdf. 
Order: Pelecaniformes (traditional listing)