Neotropic Cormorant

Phalacrocorax brasilianus

Order PELECANIFORMES - Family PHALACROCORACIDAE

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A bird of the tropical waterways of Central and South America, the Neotropic Cormorant reaches the upper limits of its range in Texas and occasionally, the Great Plains. Although it superficially resembles North America's other freshwater cormorant, the Double-crested Cormorant, the Neotropic Cormorant stands apart in various aspects of behavior, as well as range.

Cool Facts

• The Neotropic Cormorant is the only cormorant known to plunge-dive into water to catch fish. Unlike gannets and boobies, it does not dive from great heights, restricting its dives to less than a half-meter (1.75 feet) over the water. It is not particularly successful with this technique, catching a fish only once in every six to ten plunges.
• In Mexico, Neotropic Cormorants reportedly often fish cooperatively, forming a line across swift-flowing streams and striking the surface with their wings, causing fish to flee, whereupon the cormorants dive and pursue them.

Description

• Size: 61 cm (24 in)
• Wingspan: 102 cm (40 in)
• Weight: 1070-1500 g (37.77-52.95 ounces)

• Large, dark waterbird.
• Long body and long neck.
• Medium-sized bill is blunt or hooked at tip.
• Purplish black plumage.
• Throat and base of bill yellowish.

• Breeding adult with thin white plumes extending backward from ear and white border around gular (throat) skin.
• Gular pouch and base of gape form a backwards-pointing V against facial plumage.
• Eyes bright emerald green.
• Tail relatively long in proportion to body size, compared with tails of other cormorants.
• Legs black.

Sex Differences

Sexes alike.

Immature

Mostly brownish, especially on neck and breast. Bill mostly dull brown.

Similar Species

• Double-crested Cormorant very similar, but is larger, has a proportionally shorter tail, a rounded base of gular area and gape, and a bright yellow-orange gular area.

Sound

Piglike grunts.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from eastern Texas and western Louisiana to the southern tip of South America. Occasionally farther inland.

Winter Range

Mostly nonmigratory. Some northern populations move southward in fall and winter, and some high-altitude populations move to lower elevations.

Habitat

Various wetlands, including fresh, brackish, and saltwater habitats. Nests and roosts mostly in trees, but also on cliffs and human-made structures.

Food

Small fish and shrimp.

Behavior

Foraging

Dives from surface, using feet for propulsion through water. Catches fish under water, then takes prey to surface and swallows it headfirst. Also plunge-dives from above water.

Reproduction

Nest Type

A rough bowl of sticks, sometimes cemented together with guano. Placed in trees, but also on cliffs and human-made structures. Nests in colonies.

Egg Description

Light blue.

Clutch Size

1-6 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Naked and helpless.

Conservation Status

In the 1960s, Neotropic Cormorant populations declined severely in Texas; since then, these populations have shown a general trend toward growth. The cause of the declines is not conclusively understood.

Other Names

Cormoran vigua (French)
Cormorán biquá, Pato negro, Pato puerco, Pato cordo, Cuervo marino (Spanish)
Olivaceous Cormorant, Brazilian Cormorant, Mexican Cormorant (English)

Sources used to construct this page:

Telfair, R. C., and M. L. Morrison. 1995. Neotropic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax brasilianus). In The Birds of North America, No. 137 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.