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WetlandPlatform nestHuge · 2.5 kg
What the Great Cormorant sounds like
ID tip
The great cormorant is a large bird, but there is a wide variation in size in the species' wide range. Weight is reported to vary from 1.5 kg (3 lb 5 oz) to 5.3 kg (11 lb 11 oz). Males are typically larger and heavier than females, with the nominate race P. c. carbo averaging about 10% larger in linear measurements than the smaller subspecies P. c. sinensis. The lightest average weights cited are in Germany (P. c. sinensis), where 36 males averaged 2.28 kg (5 lb 1⁄2 oz) and 17 females averaged 1.94 kg (4 lb 4+1⁄2 oz). The highest come from Prince Edward Island in Canada (P. c.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
When to see the Great Cormorant
One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is January, the month with the most records.
Where to see the Great Cormorant
The map shades 141 countries with regular records, and 3 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.
Recorded as a rare visitor in Cape Verde, Palau, Brunei.
About the Great Cormorant
The great cormorant, also known as just cormorant in Britain, as black shag or kawau in New Zealand, formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It breeds in much of the Old World, Australasia, and the Atlantic coast of North America.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Easily confused with
Little Black CormorantPhalacrocorax sulcirostrisThe little black cormorant is a small cormorant measuring 60–65 cm (23.5–25.5 in) with all black plumage.
Australian Pied CormorantPhalacrocorax variusThe pied cormorant is predominantly black on its back and upper surface of the wings and white on the underside with males weighing approximately 2.2 kg (4.9 lb) and females 1.7 kg (3.7 lb).
Indian CormorantPhalacrocorax fuscicollisThis 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.
Side by side: Great Cormorant vs Little Black Cormorant · Australian Pied Cormorant vs Great Cormorant · Great Cormorant vs Indian Cormorant
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