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Great cormorant

Phalacrocorax carbo

Phalacrocorax carbo (Linnaeus, 1758) · Phalacrocoracidae WoRMS 137179

Reference photos

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A large, long-necked black waterbird. At a distance it looks plain black, but close to the feathers show a green-blue sheen. The bill is strong with a sharp hook at the tip, and the face and throat are yellow, edged with small white feathers. Breeding adults add white patches on the face and a white patch on each thigh. It swims low with the head pointing upwards, dives from the surface to chase fish, then perches with its wings held out to dry.

Depth

Feeds in shallow water, generally under 10 m and rarely more than 20 m, diving from the surface to chase fish

Size

Length 80-100 cm, wingspan 121-160 cm, weight 2-3.7 kg

Habitat

Shallow coastal and inland waters, especially estuaries; nests on sea cliffs, stacks and offshore islands, or in trees by lakes and gravel pits

Behaviour

Sociable; nests in colonies and often hunts in groups, then perches with its wings held out to dry

Diet

I eat

  • Almost entirely fish, mostly under 20 cm long, occasionally up to 75 cm
  • At sea mainly bottom-living fish: wrasses and codfishes over rock and weed, flatfish over soft ground
  • In estuaries, flounder, trout, eel and saithe are the most frequent prey

Eats me

  • Gulls and crows take eggs and chicks at nesting colonies, mostly where a colony has been disturbed
  • Fledglings are taken by eagles, including white-tailed eagle, and by red foxes

Where you'd find it

Found around most of Britain and Ireland, though less often in the Celtic Sea and the waters west of Ireland.

ChannelCeltic SeaNorth SeaIrish SeaW of IrelandW of Scotland
Often seenNow and thenWhere PEBL filmsBased on marine survey records (OBIS). Blank seas can mean nobody has looked there, not that the animal is absent.

Sources

Open-access references behind this page. Every statement on this page was read out of one of them; anything that could not be traced to a source was taken off the page rather than left standing. Each link was checked on the date shown, and confirmed then to be about this species.

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