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Great Cormorant

Phalacrocorax carboOrder: PELECANIFORMESFamily: Cormorants (Phalacrocoracidae)

Great Cormorant Portrait
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General

Great Cormorant: Largest North American comorant is black with bright yellow throat pouch bordered with white feathers. Females are similar, juveniles have brown upperparts and white belly.

Range and Habitat

Great Cormorant: Native of the Americas and Greenland. Prefers rocky coasts with sheltered inshore waters.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"curr-curr-curr", "gur-gur-gur"

Interesting Facts

  • Great Cormorants are excellent swimmers and pursue prey underwater using its feet rather than its wings.
  • This is one of two species trained by human fisherman in Japan to help them fish. It has been known to swallow small pebbles allowing it to dive more easily.
  • These birds are very sociable and colonies of up to 20,000 birds have been reported.
  • A group of cormorants has many collective nouns, including a "flight", "gulp", "rookery", "sunning", and "swim" of cormorants.


Author

Jane Wright Splitbar
Range Map for Great Cormorant
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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family
Species Phalacrocorax carbo
Length35 - 40 Inches
Wingspan63 Inches

Great Cormorant

Great Cormorant: Largest North American comorant. Black with bright yellow throat pouch bordered with white feathers. Expert swimmer, dives for fish, crustaceans. When wet holds wings in spread eagle position to dry. Strong direct flight with steady wing beats. Flies in V or straight line formation.

● Song: "curr-curr-curr", "gur-gur-gur"

● Foraging & Feeding: Great Cormorant: Dives for fish and crustaceans.

● Breeding & nesting: Great Cormorant: Three to five pale blue or green eggs incubated by both sexes 28 to 31 days in a nest of twigs, seaweed, and refuse, lined with grasses and moss on high ground.

● Similar species: Great Cormorant: Double-crested Cormorant is smaller with orange throat patch.

Flight Pattern

Strong direct flight with steady wing beats.
Great Cormorant Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Great Cormorant: Native of the Americas and Greenland. Prefers rocky coasts with sheltered inshore waters.
BreedingMonogamous, Colonial
Population
MigrationMigratory
Weight80 Ounces