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Little black Cormorant, Little black shag, Phalacrocorax sulcirostris

The Little Black Cormorant (Phalacrocorax sulcirostris) is a member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It is common in smaller rivers and lakes throughout most areas of Australia and northern New Zealand, where it is known as the little black shag. It is around sixty centimetres long, and is all black with blue-green eyes.

Distribution and habitat
The Little Black Cormorant ranges from the Malay Peninsula through Indonesia (but excluding Sumatra) and New Guinea (including the D'Entrecasteaux Islands) and throughout Australia. It is found in New Zealand's North Island. It is a predominantly freshwater species, found in bodies of water inland and occasionally sheltered coastal areas. It is almost always encountered in or near water.

Little black Cormorant, Little black shag, Phalacrocorax sulcirostris

Range map
Range map from www.oiseaux.net - Ornithological Portal Oiseaux.net
www.oiseaux.net is one of those MUST visit pages if you're in to bird watching. You can find just about everything there


Taxonomy
The Little Black Cormorant was originally described by Johann Friedrich von Brandt in 1837. Its specific epithet is derived from the Latin words sulcus "groove", and rostrum "bill". The common name in New Zealand is the little black shag.

Description
The Little Black Cormorant is a small cormorant measuring 60–65 cm with all black plumage. The back has a greenish sheen. In breeding season, white feathers appear irregularly about the head and neck, with a whitish eyebrow evident. The plumage is a more fade brown afterwards.

Males and females are identical in plumage. The long slender bill is grey, and legs and feet black. The iris of the adult is green and the juvenile brown. Immature birds have brown and black plumage.

Listen to the Little black Cormorant

www.xeno-canto.org


Feeding
The Little Black Cormorant feeds mainly on fish, and eats a higher proportion of fish than the frequently co-occurring little pied cormorant, which eats more decapods. A field study at two storage lakes, Lake Cargelligo and Lake Brewster, in south-western New South Wales found that the introduced common carp made up over half of its food intake.

Behaviour
More gregarious than other cormorants, the Little Black Cormorant can be found in large flocks. Groups sometimes fly in V formations.

Breeding
Breeding occurs once a year in spring or autumn in southern Australia, and before or after the monsoon in tropical regions. The nest is a small platform built of dried branches and sticks in the forks of trees that are standing in water. Nests are often located near other waterbirds such as other cormorants, herons, ibis, or spoonbills.

Three to five (rarely six or seven) pale blue oval eggs measuring 48 x 32 mm are laid. The eggs are covered with a thin layer of lime, giving them a matte white coated appearance. They become increasingly stained with faeces, as does the nest, over the duration of the breeding season.

Conservation status
Little black Cormorant, Little black shag, Phalacrocorax sulcirostris
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

www.birdforum.net


Sighted: (Date of first photo that I could use) 11 August 2016
Location: Botanical Garden, Sydney


Little black Cormorant, Little black shag, Phalacrocorax sulcirostris
Little black Cormorant, Little black shag - Phalacrocorax sulcirostris - 11 August 2016 - Botanical Garden, Sydney



PLEASE! If I have made any mistakes identifying any bird, PLEASE let me know on my guestbook



       
                  



                                       

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