Animal · Netherlands, Germany, Denmark
Great cormorant
Phalacrocorax carbo — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The great cormorant is a large dark waterbird with a hooked bill that dives from the surface and chases fish under water with powerful kicks. Afterwards it stands with its wings held wide open to dry.
Picture credit: Rory (CC BY 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the great cormorant live?
Home: Coasts, lakes and big rivers in Europe, Asia and Africa.
In the wild it lives in these countries: the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom, France, China, Australia, Canada.
Conservation status from the IUCN: not in danger.
The short profile
Fully grown: 70-100 cm long, wingspan 1.2-1.6 m. It weighs about 2.5 kilograms. On the menu: meat.
The story behind it
Cormorants are built for swimming rather than for staying dry. Their feathers soak up water, which makes the bird heavy and helps it sink quickly instead of bobbing on the surface like a duck. A dive usually lasts one to three minutes and can take the bird about nine metres down, where it grabs fish with the hook at the tip of its bill and swallows them head first. The price of that wet plumage is the familiar pose on a post or rock, wings spread out until they are dry again. Cormorants nest in noisy colonies in trees or on cliffs. In Japan and China, fishers have worked with trained cormorants for centuries, using a loose ring on the bird's throat.
Find it on the globe
Great cormorant is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Why do cormorants hold their wings out?
To dry them. Unlike a duck, a cormorant does not keep its feathers fully waterproof. The soaked plumage helps it dive, but afterwards the bird has to stand in the air and sun with its wings open until they are dry enough to fly well.
How deep can a cormorant dive?
Most dives are shallow, but the bird can reach about nine metres. It usually stays under for one to three minutes, swimming with its webbed feet and steering with its stiff tail.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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