Bird Watching - Great Cormorant

Great Cormorant

A heavyset seabird with a long, thick neck, blocky head, and heavy hooked bill. The legs are short, the tail fairly long, and the wings broad. 

Adults are blackish overall with white throat and yellowish skin around the bill. When breeding, adults have a square patch of white on the thigh and white neck feathers. Juveniles are brownish with a whitish throat and belly, with some brownish streaking at the edges. Males are typically larger and heavier than females.

Local Names : Pan Kowwa (Hindi)

                      Kinnari neerkakka (Malayalam)

Scientific Name : Phalacrocorax carbo

The great cormorant feeds on fish caught through diving. This birds literally fly under water. Their large webbed feet make excellent paddle to  propel them in pursuit of their prey. They often emerge quite far from the point they entered the water, leaving observers like me bewildered. 

Once on land it spends significant length of time with its wings spread allowing its feathers to dry.

The great cormorant often nests in colonies near wetlands, rivers, and sheltered inshore waters. Pairs will use the same nest site to breed year after year. It builds its nest, which is made from sticks, in trees.

This cormorant lays a clutch of three to five eggs. The eggs are a pale blue or green, and sometimes have a white chalky layer covering them. These eggs are incubated for a period of about 28 to 31 days.

Both parents feed young, by regurgitation. Age at first flight about 50 days; young may return to nest to be fed for another 40-50 days.

References

The Book of Indian Birds (Salim Ali)

Wikipedia

bangloremirror article on Cormorant

Pictures:

Kaikondrahalli lake, Bangalore (2018)

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 Kaikondrahalli lake is a lake with woods and marshland, perfect habitat for variety of birds. The trees on the borders of kaikondrahalli lake are nesting grounds for large flocks of cormorants.