10 interesting facts about Cormorants
- Cormorants are excellent swimmers and float low in the water, with only their head and neck showing.
- Cormorants are found along the coast of Great Britain and rest of Europe
, Africa, Asia, eastern North America and Australia. - These birds can dive as deep as 100 feet and the longest recorded dive has been of 71 seconds.
- The young cormorants stay in the nest for 55 days, after which they form large flocks with other young and adult cormorants.
- The newly hatched cormorants are blind for the first three days and naked as well, with the skin just like black leather. The skin later grows to a curly, dark grey down.
- Majority of the cormorant species, nearly all in the Northern Hemisphere, have dark plumage, while some of those in the Southern Hemisphere are black and white and a few of them can be found colorful as well, like the Spotted Shag of New Zealand.
- In summers, their plumage is blue-black and glossy, with white on the cheeks and throat and a patch on the thigh. In winters, this plumage changes to less glossy, with brown mottling on the white areas, except for the thigh patches that disappear completely.
- Cormorants are used by fishermen in Asia to prevent other birds from grabbing their catch.
- Cormorants are colonial nesters that make use of trees, rocky islets and cliffs to lay eggs.
- All cormorants are fish-eaters, their prey mainly consisting of small eels, fish and even water snakes.
