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Great Cormorant


Great Cormorant
Photo Information
Copyright: Peter van Zoest (PeterZ) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2411 W: 94 N: 5569] (17712)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2009-07-15
Categories: Birds
Camera: Nikon D300, AF Nikkor 70-300mm f4-5.6 G, Digital RAW
Exposure: f/7.1, 1/200 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2009-07-24 8:39
Viewed: 462
Points: 48
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Be back from a short holiday in the east of our country.
Just before I left, a week ago, I photographed this Cormorant in my garden.

The Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), known as the Great Black Cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the Black Cormorant in Australia and the Black Shag further south in New Zealand, is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It breeds in much of the Old World and the Atlantic coast of North America.

Description
The Great Cormorant is a large black bird, but there is a wide variation in size in the species wide range. Weight is reported from 1.5 kg to 5.3 kg, with a typical range from 2.6 to 3.7 kg. Length can vary from 70 to 102 cm (28-40 in) and wingspan from 121 to 160 cm (48-63 in). It has a longish tail and yellow throat-patch. Adults have white thigh patches in the breeding season. In European waters it can be distinguished from the Common Shag by its larger size, heavier build, thicker bill, lack of a crest and plumage without any green tinge.

In eastern North America, it is similarly larger and bulkier than Double-crested Cormorant, and the latter species has more yellow on the throat and bill.

Distribution
This is a very common and widespread bird species. It feeds on the sea, in estuaries, and on freshwater lakes and rivers. Northern birds migrate south and winter along any coast that is well-supplied with fish.
The type subspecies, P. c. carbo, is found mainly in Atlantic waters and nearby inland areas: on western European coasts and south to North Africa, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland; and on the eastern seaboard of North America, though in America it breeds only in the north of its range, in the Canadian maritime provinces.

The subspecies found in Australasian waters, P. carbo novaehollandiae, has a crest. In New Zealand it is known as the Black Shag or by its Māori name; Kawau.
The 80-100 cm long White-breasted Cormorant P. c. lucidus found in sub-Saharan Africa, has a white neck and breast. It is often treated as a full species, Phalacrocorax lucidus (e.g. Sibley & Monroe, 1990, Sinclair, Hockey and Tarboton, 2002)

In addition to the Australasian and African forms, Phalacrocorax carbo novaehollandiae and P. carbo lucidus mentioned above, other geographically distinct subspecies are recognised, including P. c. sinensis (western Europe to east Asia), P. c. maroccanus (north-western Africa), and P. c. hannedae (Japan).
Some authors treat all these as allospecies of a P. carbo superspecies group.

Behaviour
The Great Cormorant breeds mainly on coasts, nesting on cliffs or in trees (which are eventually killed by the droppings), but also increasingly inland. 3-4 eggs are laid in a nest of seaweed or twigs.

The Great Cormorant can dive to considerable depths, but often feeds in shallow water. It frequently brings prey to the surface. A wide variety of fish are taken: cormorants are often noticed eating eels, but this may reflect the considerable time taken to subdue an eel and position it for swallowing, rather than any dominance of eels in the diet. In British waters, dive times of 20-30 seconds are common, with a recovery time on the surface around a third of the dive time.
The Great Cormorant is one of the few birds which can move its eyes, which assists in hunting.

Cormorants and humans
Many fishermen see in the Great Cormorant a competitor for fish. Because of this it was nearly hunted to extinction in the past. Thanks to conservation efforts its numbers increased. At the moment there are about 1,2 million birds in Europe (based on winter counts. Late summer counts would show higher numbers). Increasing populations have once again brought the cormorant into conflict with fisheries. For example, in Britain, where inland breeding was once uncommon, there are now increasing numbers of birds breeding inland, and many inland fish farms and fisheries now claim to be suffering high losses due to these birds. In the UK each year some licences are issued to shoot specified numbers of cormorants in order to help reduce predation, it is however still illegal to kill a bird without such a licence.

Chinese fishermen sometimes tie fishing line around the throats of cormorants, tight enough to prevent swallowing, and deploy them from small boats. The cormorants "eat" fish without being able to fully swallow them, and the fishermen are able to retrieve the fish simply by forcing open the cormorants' mouths, apparently engaging the regurgitation reflex. This traditional fishing method is known as Cormorant fishing.

In Norway cormorants is a traditional game bird. Each year ca. 10,000 cormorants are shot to be eaten. In North Norway, cormorants are traditionally seen as semi-sacred. It is regarded as good luck to have cormorants gather near your village or settlement. An old legend states that people who die far out at sea, their bodies never recovered, spend eternity on the island Utrøst - which can only occasionally be found by mortals. The inhabitants of Utrøst can only visit their homes in the shape of cormorants.
goldyrs, nasokoun, nglen, cirano, siggi, thor68, Argus, Noisette, maziero, jaycee, CeltickRanger, Gert-Paassen, uleko, Marx44, Miss_Piggy, boreocypriensis, xTauruSx has marked this note useful
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Critiques [Translate]

Hello Peter
Bravo pour cette élégante posture.
Merci Amicalement
Laurent

Welcome back, Peter!
An awesome shot of this Cormorant form your garden...
I love the pose you've captured...
Very well done!
Bravo!
Goldy

hello Peter
very beautiful pose,fine luminous presentation with nice details
TFS
Nasos

hallo Peter
goed genomen met die vleugels open
i hou er wel van zo als ze kunnen staan ,soms met meerdere op één plek
goede compositie en mooi van kleur
groetjes lou

  • Great 
  • nglen Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2924 W: 34 N: 8671] (32310)
  • [2009-07-24 10:51]

Hi Peter. I hope you had a good time on your holiday. You were so lucky to have the Cormorant in your garden. You were close enouth to get this fine picture. With sharp focusing and fine detail in the black feathers. Good colours and use of the light. Well fone TFS good notes too.
Nick..

Have a nice weekend.

  • Great 
  • cirano Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 656 W: 0 N: 228] (4954)
  • [2009-07-24 11:56]

Slav Peter,
Very good capture with nice pose.Fine sharpness and details.TFS.
Dûrzan

  • Great 
  • siggi Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1385 W: 56 N: 4777] (16434)
  • [2009-07-24 11:56]

Hello Peter,
Very good details and color on this photo, I like how you capture the Great Cormorant with his wing spread, Good work, TFS, Best regards Siggi

Ciao Peter, great capture of cormorant in fantastic pose, wonderful colors, very well done, have a good week end, ciao Silvio

  • Great 
  • Argus Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3831 W: 190 N: 11410] (35161)
  • [2009-07-24 12:26]

Hello Peter,
Welcome back!
What a wonderful garden you have by the water to be able to take such a shot of a Great Cormorant!. Not many people have the pleasure of seeing these birds at their doorstep.
You caught this one in excellent lighting in the typical drying-wings posture, the head turned to allow the lighting to show the green eyes and yellow cheeks. The sharpness is fine and the composition excellent with the vegetation-rich water providing a fine BG.
Thanks and have a good weekend,
Ivan

  • Great 
  • thor68 Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 792 W: 138 N: 1312] (5642)
  • [2009-07-24 12:46]

great capture of the cormorant drying itself! :-) wonderful details, awesome pose and terrific eye-contact.
you really have a cool garden. well done & best wishes, thor.

Hello Peter
Wow ! such a beautiful bird in your garden ! you are lucky
this cormorant have a very nice pose, typical for this species, i like the effect of the sunlight on his feathers
Have a great WE
Jacqueline

Hi Peter,

Fantastic capture of this beautiful bird.
I like the POV and lights.
Nice colors and bg.
Congratulations!

Regards,
Paulo.

  • Great 
  • jaycee Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2493 W: 11 N: 6885] (21912)
  • [2009-07-24 16:18]

Hi Peter,

A Cormorant in your garden!!! I'm so jealous - I'm as likely to see a Cormorant in mine as I am an elephant. I LOVE the pose - he looks so proud of himself. The face and wings are marvelous and so detailed. The setting is beautiful. It's so nice to be your neighbor after all this time.

Jane

hello Peter

excellent photo of this expressive and proud Great Cormorant,
with fine POV, DOF and framing, fine focus great sharpness
and details of its dark plumage, TFS

Asbed

Hallo Peter,

Zelfs deze vogel heb ik nog op de Veluwe gefotografeerd.
Mooi met die vleugels te drogen en het oogcontact.
Kijk eens naar mijn oranje tipje?
Heb juist veel zeldzzame dingen gefotografeerd oa. een jong dat bij zijn moeder drinkt in een roedel edeelherten.
Gert

  • Great 
  • uleko Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3002 W: 162 N: 991] (2901)
  • [2009-07-24 23:06]

Hello Peter,
A fine close view of this Cormorant drying its large wings in the sun. I find them hard to photograph, they've very alert as this one seems to be, watching you eagerly!
TFS and regards, Ulla

  • Great 
  • zetu Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 657 W: 15 N: 1636] (6365)
  • [2009-07-25 1:50]

Hello Peter
Wonderful scene with excellent details and natural colors
Regards
Razvan

Witam
Ładne zdobycie zdjęcia.
Ciekawa scena jak kormoran suszy skrzydła.
Kompozycja bez zarzutu.
TFS
Marx

Ciao Peter. Superb pose fot a great lightning and detailed compo.

Roberto

Hi Peter,

what a lovely capture of this cormorent with nice wing span. Very nice and sharp details. Captured in its natural habbitat. Very well done. Great composition.

TFS,
Kedar

Hi Peter,
Great Cormorant...
On drying in the wings.
Details clear and very nice depth of field.
Emerald eyes also ...
best wishes,
Seyfi

Hallo Peter
If big birds like this Cormorant visit your garden, I would love to do so too. It must be a feast walking around in your garden, not only for the birds, but for the insects as well. This ia a beautiful bird with and impressive wingspan which it proudly shows off in your image. The dark colours of the feathers displays beautifully in the sunglight, and the position and pose you have captured it in adds to the splendour of its plumage. A lovely image. Thanks for sharing. Best regards.
Anna

Hahaha... what a moment you captured Peter! Lovely pose... He noticed you i think! i loved this one... funny...
TFS and have a nice day!
Bayram

Hehehe:) lovely shot of this fine looking heron Peter.
Great one again.
TFS and regards, Deniz

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