Little Cormorant

Fascinating facts about the Little Cormorant

• The little cormorant hunts in very shallow water, often in depths of less than a metre. In northern India it was recorded catching fish only 2-8 cm long, pulling the prey up to the surface before swallowing. It propels itself underwater with its webbed feet, a method that lets it chase the tiny fish efficiently. While the bird is feeding, other waterbirds such as painted storks, gulls and egrets may try to steal the captured fish.
• Both male and female little cormorants cooperate to build a simple platform of sticks high in trees, and they even use coconut palms when available. The nest is usually completed in about two weeks, after which the pair may join colonies of Indian pond herons and little egrets. Building the nest together allows the birds to share the workload and to defend the site within the mixed colony.
• After emerging from a dive, little cormorants hold their wings outstretched and remain still, a posture that has been linked to wing-drying. Although some observers have debated this interpretation, a Sri Lankan study showed the spread-wing period always followed underwater activity and that its length increased with longer dives.
• In the western Indus River valley the little cormorant's range meets that of the vagrant pygmy cormorant, making field identification tricky and the two are sometimes even treated as the same species. Both birds belong to the small "microcormorant" group and share a similar overall size, which adds to the confusion.
• During the non-breeding season a small white patch appears on the little cormorant's throat, while in the breeding season the whole body turns glossy black with occasional white spots. The breeding adult displays a glistening all-black plumage with some white spots and filoplumes on the face, contrasting with the brownish non-breeding plumage where the throat patch becomes visible.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Little Cormorant

In the lush wetlands, the Little Cormorant glides with effortless elegance, its sleek, dark silhouette slicing through the water with barely a ripple, as it pursues the unsuspecting fish that dart through the aquatic vegetation. With its agile, serpentine neck, it strikes with lightning speed, its sharp, hooked beak snapping shut with deadly precision, a testament to its remarkable adaptability as a stealthy predator. As it emerges from the depths, water cascading from its feathers, the Little Cormorant's piercing gaze seems to hold a quiet confidence, a mastery of its domain that is both captivating and humbling.

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