European Shag

Gulosus aristotelis

Fairly common along seacoasts, nesting on steep cliffs; usually seen as singles or small groups, swimming or flying low over the sea. Does not occur on inland water bodies. Rather large, long-necked dark waterbird; feeds by diving and often leaps a little as it dives. Appreciably smaller and thinner necked than Great Cormorant, with more slender bill. Adult glossy black overall with narrow yellow throat patch; first-year dark smoky grayish overall, variably paler on throat and underparts. By spring, often develops faded pale panel on upperwing.

识别特征

This is a medium-large black bird, 68 to 78 cm (27 to 31 in) long and with a 95-to-110-centimetre (37 to 43 in) wingspan. It has a longish tail and a yellow throat patch. Adults have a small crest in the breeding season. It is distinguished from the great cormorant by its smaller size, lighter build, thinner bill, and, in breeding adults, by the crest and metallic green-tinged sheen on the feathers. Among those differences are that a shag is smaller and has a lighter, narrower beak, and the juvenile shag has darker underparts. The European shag's tail has 12 feathers, as do the great cormorant's 14 feathers. The green sheen on the feathers results in the alternative name green cormorant sometimes being given to the European shag.

分类信息

The European shag was formerly classified within the genus Phalacrocorax, but a 2014 study found it to be significantly more diverged than the clade containing Phalacrocorax and Urile, but basal to the clade containing Nannopterum and Leucocarbo, and thus classified it in its own genus, Gulosus. The IOC followed this classification in 2021. Gulosus is thought to have split from the Nannopterum-Leucocarbo clade between 9.0–11.2 million years ago.

学名
Gulosus aristotelis
命名信息
(Linnaeus, 1761)
Suliformes
Phalacrocoracidae
Gulosus

分布与栖息地

The European shag can be readily seen among the following locations during the breeding season, between late April and mid-July: Saltee Islands, Ireland; Farne Islands and Isles of Scilly, England; Isle of May, Deerness and Fowlsheugh, Scotland; Runde, Norway; Iceland; Denmark; Faroe Islands; Galicia, Northern Spain; Dalmatia and Istria, Croatia. In April 2017, eight new European shags were born in Monaco.<p>The largest colony of European shags is in the Cíes Islands, Spain, with 2,500 pairs (25% of the world's population).

迁徙
Complete migrants

保护状况

种群趋势
declining

照片

分布

鸟叫声

其他鸟类

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Multicolored aracari with a black head, an olive-green back, and a bicolored bill: pale above and black below. Note the red band across its yellow underparts and its red rump. Commonly encountered in a variety of different forested habitats, where it typically gathers in small noisy groups, occasionally with other aracari and toucan species at fruiting trees.

Zebra Dove

Zebra Dove

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Gray Falcon

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