Where does the name — Cormorant? It turns out that we borrowed this word from the Turkic dialect, as we called the red duck or the well-known roast. And the Tatars called cormorants geese. Cormorant, nevertheless, is considered an inedible bird, due to the strong smell of fish from the carcass, as well as a large amount of subcutaneous fat.
Origin of the species and description
Photo: Cormorant
The cormorant originated from the pelican order and belongs to the cormorant family. This water bird is one of the best underwater hunters. There are more than 30 species of cormorants, they settled all over the globe! Even in our country, you can find about 6 varieties of these birds.
The names of the species most often depend on the external features of the birds, or on their habitat, here are some of them that can be especially remembered:
- Great Cormorant — this is the most traveled species, loves flights, it can be found on the territory of Russia, Europe, Africa and many other countries;
- Japanese — named after its habitat;
- Crested — named so because of the prominent tuft on the head, listed in the Red Book;
- Small — named for its size;
- Chubate — sedentary cormorant lives in southern Africa. Among the features of appearance are red eyes and a crest;
- Red-faced — lives exclusively in exotic places in the Pacific Ocean. Head skin bare;
- Eared — lives in North America, and has eyebrows above the eyes;
- Indian — named after the place of residence, has the smallest weight – 1 kilogram;
- Bougainville — looks like a penguin;
- Galapagos — does not fly. Lives on the islands and weighs up to 5 kilograms;
- White — one of the rarest species, named for the color of its feathers;
- Auckland — named after living in the Auckland Islands, and has a beautiful black and white coloration.
An interesting fact: there is also an extinct species of cormorants, this is the Steller’s cormorant, it was not a flying species and reached a weight of 6 kilograms.
Appearance and features
Photo: Cormorant Bird
The average cormorant weighs about 2-3 kilograms, the male is always larger than the female. Juveniles are brown with lighter plumage, while adults are black with a bronze cast on the back and a yellow halo around the eyes. Some subspecies have white spots on the body. There are also varieties of Cormorant, in the plumage of which there are also colored motifs.
The cormorant looks like a goose. The body of a large cormorant can grow up to 100 centimeters, but the wingspan will be 150, which looks very impressive. The cormorant’s beak is powerful, often yellow and bent at the end, like a lock or a hook, they also have massive webbed paws and a movable neck, nature gave all this to the Cormorant for the convenience of catching fish.
