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MarinePlatform nestHuge · 2.0 kg
ID tip
The imperial shag has a total length of 70–79 cm (28–31 in) and weighs 1.8–3.5 kg (4.0–7.7 lb), with males usually larger than females. It is endowed with glossy black feathers covering most of its body, with a white belly and neck. It possesses a distinctive ring of blue skin around its eyes, an orange-yellow nasal knob, pinkish legs and feet, and an erectile black crest. During the non-breeding season, adults lack the crest, have a duller facial area, and less or no white to the back and wings. It has a serrated bill used for catching fish.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
When to see the Imperial Shag
One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 9 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is November, the month with the most records.
Where to see the Imperial Shag
The map shades 4 countries with regular records, and 1 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 Australia.
About the Imperial Shag
The imperial shag or imperial cormorant is a black-and-white cormorant native to southern South America, islands of the Subantarctic, and the Antarctic Peninsula, 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 complex, and several types are treated as either subspecies or separate species.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Easily confused with
Rock ShagLeucocarbo magellanicusAt a distance, the rock shag is a black and white bird, with head, neck and upperparts black and chest and underparts white.
Guanay CormorantLeucocarbo bougainvilliorumThe guanay cormorant is similar in plumage to the rock shag Leucocarbo magellanicus, but is larger, measuring 71–78 cm from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, and has more extensive white on the underparts.
Stewart Island ShagLeucocarbo chalconotusThe species is dimorphic, with two plumages.
Side by side: Imperial Shag vs Rock Shag · Guanay Cormorant vs Imperial Shag · Imperial Shag vs Stewart Island Shag
Watch the Imperial Shag on live cams
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