Indian Cormorant
Phalacrocorax fuscicollis
A dark ducklike waterbird with blue-green eyes, a rounded head, a sloping forehead, and a long and slender bill that is sharply hooked at the tip. Adults are black, immatures are brownish with white underparts. Like all cormorants, frequently seen swimming with its body low in the water, head and neck pointing upward, and suddenly disappearing underwater to catch fish. Often perches upright on a rock, drying itself with outstretched wings. Seen in small groups, fishing communally in inland water bodies. Similar to Little Cormorant, but note the slightly larger size and shape of the head, flat on Little Cormorant and rounded on Indian Cormorant. Indian Cormorant is smaller and slimmer than Great Cormorant.
Identification
This 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. The eyes are blue and it has bare yellow facial skin during the non-breeding season. Breeding birds have a short white ear tuft. In some plumages it has a white throat but the white is restricted below the gape unlike in the much larger great cormorant. Sexes are similar, but non-breeding adults and juveniles are browner.
Taxonomy
The Indian cormorant was formally described in 1826 by English naturalist James Francis Stephens and given the current binomial name Phalacrocorax fuscicollis. The specific epithet combines the Latin fuscus meaning "dusky" or "brown" with the Modern Latin -collis meaning "-necked". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.<p>A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2019 found that the Indian cormorant was sister to the little black cormorant. It is estimated that the two species split 2.5–3.2 million years ago during the late Pliocene.
- Scientific name
- Phalacrocorax fuscicollis
- Authority
- Stephens, 1826
- Order
- Suliformes
- Family
- Phalacrocoracidae
- Genus
- Phalacrocorax
Range and habitat
This cormorant fishes gregariously in inland rivers or large wetlands of peninsular India and the northern part of Sri Lanka. It also occurs in estuaries and mangroves but not on the open coast. They breed very locally in mixed species breeding colonies. They extend north-east to Assam and eastward into Thailand, Burma and Cambodia.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The breeding season is July to February but depends on rainfall and water conditions. In northern India, they breed from July to February and in Sri Lanka, between November and February. The nest is a platform of twigs placed in the forks of partially submerged trees or of those growing on the islands. The nests are similar to those of other Indian cormorants, storks or waterbirds in dense colonies, often with several tiers of nests. The usual clutch is three to five eggs which are bluish green and with a chalky surface.<p>The Indian cormorant makes short dives to capture the fish and a group will often fish communally, forming a broad front to drive fish into a corner.<p>An echinostomatid parasite has been described from Sindh from this species.
Conservation
- Population trend
- unknown
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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