Great Cormorant: a two-minute wildlife lesson

Wings over Water · day 3 of 7

Five facts

1. When it dives, water soaks the outer part of its feathers. The extra weight helps it sink deeper to catch fish.
2. It often swims with its body half or fully under the water, like a submarine with only its periscope showing.
3. Back on a perch, it can spend hours drying off with its wings and tail spread wide, a pose called the flag position.
4. Its hearing seems tuned for underwater use, which may help it find fish. The trade-off is weaker hearing in air.
5. In traditional fishing with cormorants, a bird could keep every eighth fish. Birds learned the count and refused the eighth dive without their reward.

The quiz

1. How do wet feathers help the great cormorant fish?

• They make it float higher
• They weigh it down so it can dive deeper (correct)
• They keep it warm in the sun
• They scare fish towards it

Water soaking its outer feathers adds weight and lets it go deeper.

2. What does a swimming cormorant often look like?

• A floating log
• A sailing boat
• A submarine with its periscope up (correct)
• A spinning top

It swims with its body partly or fully underwater, like a submarine.

3. What is the cormorant's flag position?

• Perching with wings and tail spread to dry (correct)
• Diving head first
• Standing on one leg
• Flying in a V shape

It spreads its wings and tail and can stay like that for hours to dry.

4. Where does the great cormorant's hearing seem to work best?

• High in the sky
• Inside dark caves
• In thick forest
• Underwater (correct)

Its hearing seems adapted for underwater use, with less sensitivity in air.

5. In traditional cormorant fishing, which fish could the bird keep?

• The first one
• Every second one
• Every eighth one (correct)
• The biggest one

Birds kept every eighth fish and learned to expect it.

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