Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic

birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different

classifications of the family have been proposed recently, and the number
of genera is disputed. The great cormorant (P. carbo) and the common
shag(P. aristotelis) are the only two species of the family commonly
encountered on the British Isles,[1] and "cormorant" and "shag" appellations
have been later assigned to different species in the family somewhat
haphazardly.
Cormorants and shags are medium-to-large birds, with body weight in the
range of 0.35–5 kilograms (0.77–11.02 lb) and wing span of 45–100
centimetres (18–39 in). The majority of species have dark feathers. The bill
is long, thin and hooked. Their feet have webbing between all four toes. All
species are fish-eaters, catching the prey by diving from the surface. They
are excellent divers, and under water they propel themselves with their feet
with help from their wings; some cormorant species have been found to
dive as deep as 45 metres (150 ft). They have relatively short wings due to
their need for economical movement underwater, and consequently have
the highest flight costs of any flying bird.[2]
Cormorants nest in colonies around the shore, on trees, islets or cliffs.
They are coastal rather than oceanic birds, and some have colonised
inland waters – indeed, the original ancestor of cormorants seems to have
been a fresh-water bird.[citation needed] They range around the world, except
for the central Pacific islands.
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Names[edit]
No consistent distinction exists between cormorants and shags. The names
'cormorant' and 'shag' were originally the common names of the two
species of the family found in Great Britain, Phalacrocorax carbo (now
referred to by ornithologists as the great cormorant) and P.
aristotelis (the European shag). "Shag" refers to the bird's crest, which the
British forms of the great cormorant lack. As other species were discovered
by English-speaking sailors and explorers elsewhere in the world, some
were called cormorants and some shags, depending on whether they had
crests or not. Sometimes the same species is called a cormorant in one
part of the world and a shag in another, e.g., the great cormorant is called
the black shag in New Zealand (the birds found in Australasia have a crest
that is absent in European members of the species). Van Tets (1976)
proposed to divide the family into two genera and attach the name
"cormorant" to one and "shag" to the other, but this flies in the face of
common usage and has not been widely adopted.
The scientific genus name is Latinised Ancient Greek, from φαλακρός
(phalakros, "bald") and κόραξ (korax, "raven").[3] This is often thought to
refer to the creamy white patch on the cheeks of adult great cormorants, or
the ornamental white head plumes prominent in Mediterranean birds of this
species, but is certainly not a unifying characteristic of cormorants.
"Cormorant" is a contraction derived either directly from Latin corvus
marinus, "sea raven" or through Brythonic Celtic. Cormoran is
the Cornish name of the sea giant in the tale of Jack the Giant Killer.
Indeed, "sea raven" or analogous terms were the usual terms for
cormorants in Germanic languages until after the Middle Ages. The French
explorer André Thévet commented in 1558, "... the beak [is] similar to that
of a cormorant or other corvid," which demonstrates that the erroneous
belief that the birds were related to ravens lasted at least to the 16th
century.

Description[edit]

Great cormorant with hooked bill

Cormorants and shags are medium-to-large seabirds. They range in size
from the pygmy cormorant (Phalacrocorax pygmaeus), at as little as 45 cm
(18 in) and 340 g (12 oz), to the flightless cormorant (Phalacrocorax
harrisi), at a maximum size 100 cm (39 in) and 5 kg (11 lb). The recently
extinct spectacled cormorant (Phalacrocorax perspicillatus) was rather
larger, at an average size of 6.3 kg (14 lb). The majority, including nearly all
Northern Hemisphere species, have mainly dark plumage, but some
Southern Hemisphere species are black and white, and a few (e.g.
the spotted shag of New Zealand) are quite colourful. Many species have
areas of coloured skin on the face (the lores and the gular skin) which can
be bright blue, orange, red or yellow, typically becoming more brightly
coloured in the breeding season. The bill is long, thin, and sharply hooked.
Their feet have webbing between all four toes, as in their relatives.

Habitat[edit]

Imperial shags in Beagle Channel

They are coastal rather than oceanic birds, and some have colonised
inland waters – indeed, the original ancestor of cormorants seems to have
been a fresh-water bird, judging from the habitat of the most ancient
lineage. They range around the world, except for the central Pacific islands.

Behaviour[edit]
All are fish-eaters, dining on small eels, fish, and even water snakes. They
dive from the surface, though many species make a characteristic half-
jump as they dive, presumably to give themselves a more streamlined entry
into the water. Under water they propel themselves with their feet, though
some also propel themselves with their wings (see the picture,
[4]
 commentary,[5] and existing reference video[6]). Some cormorant
species have been found, using depth gauges, to dive to depths of as
much as 45 metres (150 ft).

Wing-drying behaviour
After fishing, cormorants go ashore, and are frequently seen holding their
wings out in the sun. All cormorants have preen gland secretions that are
used ostensibly to keep the feathers waterproof. Some sources[7] state that
cormorants have waterproof feathers while others say that they have
water permeable feathers.[8][9] Still others suggest that the outer plumage
absorbs water but does not permit it to penetrate the layer of air next to the
skin.[10]The wing drying action is seen even in the flightless cormorant but
commonly in the Antarctic shags[11] and red-legged cormorants. Alternate
functions suggested for the spread-wing posture include that it
aids thermoregulation[12] or digestion, balances the bird, or indicates
presence of fish. A detailed study of the great cormorant concludes that it is
without doubt[13] to dry the plumage.[14][15]
Cormorants are colonial nesters, using trees, rocky islets, or cliffs.
The eggs are a chalky-blue colour. There is usually one brood a year. The
young are fed through regurgitation. They typically have deep, ungainly
bills, showing a greater resemblance to those of the pelicans, to which they
are related, than is obvious in the adults.

Systematics[edit]
The cormorants are a group traditionally placed within
the Pelecaniformes or, in the Sibley–Ahlquist taxonomy, the
expanded Ciconiiformes. This latter group is certainly not a natural one,
and even after the tropicbirds have been recognised as quite distinct, the
remaining Pelecaniformes seem not to be entirely monophyletic. Their
relationships and delimitation – apart from being part of a "higher
waterfowl" clade which is similar but not identical to Sibley and Ahlquist's
"pan-Ciconiiformes" – remain mostly unresolved. Notwithstanding, all
evidence agrees that the cormorants and shags are closer to
the darters and Sulidae (gannets and boobies), and perhaps the pelicans
or even penguins, than to all other living birds.[16]
In recent years, three preferred treatments of the cormorant family have
emerged: either to leave all living cormorants in a single
genus, Phalacrocorax, or to split off a few species such as the imperial
shag complex (in Leucocarbo) and perhaps the flightless cormorant.
Alternatively, the genus may be disassembled altogether and in the most
extreme case be reduced to the great, white-breasted and Japanese
cormorants.[17]
Pending a thorough review of the Recent and prehistoric cormorants, the
single-genus approach[18] is followed here for three reasons: first, it is
preferable to tentatively assigning genera without a robust hypothesis.
Second, it makes it easier to deal with the fossil forms, the systematic
treatment of which has been no less controversial than that of living
cormorants and shags. Third, this scheme is also used by the IUCN,
[19]
 making it easier to incorporate data on status and conservation. In
accordance with the treatment there, the imperial shag complex is here left
unsplit as well, but the king shag complex has been.

Occipital crest or os nuchale in Phalacrocorax carbo

The cormorants and the darters have a unique bone on the back of the top
of the skull known as the os nuchale or occipital style which was called a
xiphoid process in early literature. This bony projection provides anchorage
for the muscles that increase the force with which the lower mandible is
closed.[20][21] This bone and the highly developed muscles over it, the M.
adductor mandibulae caput nuchale, are unique to the families
Phalacrocoracidae and Anhingidae.[22][23]
Several evolutionary groups are still recognizable. However, combining the
available evidence suggests that there has also been a great deal
of convergent evolution; for example the cliff shags are a
convergent paraphyletic group. The proposed division into Phalacrocorax
sensu stricto (or subfamily "Phalacrocoracinae") cormorants
and Leucocarbo sens