Little Cormorant

Description:

The Little Cormorant (Phalacrocorax niger) is a member of the Cormorant family of seabirds: Aptly named, the Little Cormorant is small in comparison with other cormorants, only 55 cm in length with an average mass of 442.5gm. Due to its large population and extremely wide geographic range the Little Cormorant is categorized as least concerned by the IUCN. The nests of the Little Cormorant are often built in mixed colonies: some studies dissent on whether they mix with Storks and Egrets or Flying Foxes and Egrets, but they agree that they have mixed nesting colonies, typically located in trees near some body of water. This water source could be any type of water, natural or man-made: Little Cormorants have been observed nesting in trees near canals, drainage ditches, natural ditches, seasonally flooded agricultural lands, bogs, marshes, swamps, fens, peat-lands, freshwater lakes, freshwater marshes, rivers, streams, and creeks. The Little Cormorant gathers a variety of plants to build its nests, depending on the geographical location: Of the vegetation used, the Little Cormorant uses most parts of the plant, but most often they use dry twigs from the plant, the dried plant in its entirety, or the stem of the plant; on occasion they do use dry fruit, leaves, and plant fiber but these are used much less often. Looks like these nests were mainly made of seaweed, with a few twigs!

Habitat:

The Little Cormorant is a resident species in most of tropical south Asia. It is not a migratory bird; it dwells year-round in trees near a water source.