Pelagic Cormorant

Brandt's Cormorant; Moss Landing, California.

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About the map

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1. Description
2. Sound
3. Conservation Status
4. Other Names
5. Cool Facts
6. Full detailed species account

The Pelagic Cormorant is a small, slender cormorant of the Pacific Coast. Although it is exclusively marine in habits, its name is misleading, since it prefers inshore areas rather than the open ocean.

Description

• Large, dark water bird; small to medium-sized cormorant.
• Long body and long, slender neck.
• Slender bill is blunt or hooked at tip.

• Size: 51-76 cm (20-30 in)
• Wingspan: 100-121 cm (39-48 in)
• Weight: 1370-2440 g (48.36-86.13 ounces)

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike; males slightly larger.

Sound

Low groans, croaks, or hisses.

Conservation Status

Populations appear stable. Numbers were reduced by human and natural disturbances from 1850 to 1900s.

Other Names

Cormoran Pélagique (French)
Cormorán Pelágico, Pato sargento (Spanish)
Baird's Cormorant (English)

Cool Facts

• The Pelagic Cormorant uses its own guano to solidify its nest materials and to cement its nest to the cliff face.
• The Pelagic Cormorant is among the least gregarious or social of the cormorants, nesting on steep cliffs along rocky and exposed shorelines, either in loose colonies or far from nearest neighbors.

Sources used to construct this page:

Hobson, K. A. 1997. Pelagic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pelagicus). In The Birds of North America, No. 282 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.