African cormorant

The African Cormorant , also called Cormorant with long tail , Cormorant of Africa or Cormoran African Pygmy ( Phalacrocorax africanus ) is a bird belonging to the family of the Phalacrocoracidés, whose Cormoran S are the only representatives. This bird saw on the unintermitting African.

Description

There is no sexual Dimorphisme at this species. It is a small cormorant from 50 to 55 cm length and a scale of 85 cm.

Bridal plumage

Of black plumage, this bird presents feathers of cover of the wings and shoulders of silver plated color, punctuated of black. It has a long tail and a short peak. The zone located between the nozzle and the eye is déplumée, showing a yellowish facial skin; the eye is red. The nozzle, rather long and presenting a small hook to its extremity, is yellow with orange yellow.

Plumage internuptial and youthful

The youthful ones and the adults not-reproducers are brown, with a white belly moucheté of brown.

Behavior

Social behavior

The African Cormorant, less sociable than the other species of cormorant, is generally alone or in small group apart from the season of reproduction. To spend the night, it pole on a tree which he readily divides with other cormorants, even of other species of birds (Cigogne S, Héron S, Ibis…).

Flight and stroke

Like all the cormorants, the African Cormorant is a good swimmer and a good plunger, but its not waterproofed feathers tend to soak with water. In fact, weighed down by the weight of water, this bird swims with the immersed body (very often, only the neck and the head exceed on the surface). To improve its floating (and also to be heated), it regularly leaves water in order to make dry its feathers with the sun in a position characteristic of the cormorants (see the corresponding vidéos in the external bonds).

Migration

Although primarily sedentary, this species can occasionally carry out important displacements of mass in the event of modifications of the levels of water where they are nourished. This can bring to the desertion from a zone and the colonization of another by a big number of birds.

Food

Its food mode is primarily Piscivore, but it can in an opportunist way also consume Grenouille S, watery Insecte S, Crustacé S and even of the Oisillon S.

The African Cormorant generally fishes during 5 to 6 a.m. per day, especially at dawn and the twilight. It is able to plunge to great depth, but it is generally nourished out of not very deep water. The preys are generally swallowed on the surface, head the first.

Reproduction

This cormorant reaches the age to reproduce towards 3 or 4 years. The couples carry out a bridal Parade during the aquelle one they agitate the head vigorously, toilettent and cherish the nozzle and the neck mutually.

The period of reproduction is variable according to the zones. It is done within colonies. The nest, made up of an accumulation of brushwood, is built on a tree or on the ground. The laying includes/understands between 2 and 4 slightly tinted white eggs of green or blue.

Incubation lasts 24 days; it is carried out by the two parents. Let us oisillons are Nidicole S. They are born naked and blind then a black sleeping bag recovers them.

Vocalizations

Generally quiet, this bird can emit cries caquetants when it is in colonies.

Habitat

The African Cormorant niche close to the marshes and plans of fresh water, or close to the sheltered coastal areas (estuaries, coastal bays, Mangrove S…).

Subspecies and distribution

This species is distributed in sub-Saharan Africa, but is rare on the east coast of the continent in the north of Madagascar, and goes away on the level from the desert from Namibia.

There exist two subspecies of African Cormorant;:

Phalacrocorax africanus africanus (Gmelin 1789): South and East, West Africa
Phalacrocorax africanus pictilis (Bangs 1918): Madagascar

Statute and safeguarding

Because of its large surface of distribution and its rather important population (from 210.000 to 1.100.000 individuals, IUCN classified this bird in category LLC (minor concern).

Taxonomy and etymology

Formerly placed in the order of the Pelecaniformes, this species from now on is placed in the order of the Ciconiiformes. The species Phalacrocorax africanus (in the broad sense) was divided into two species disctinctes:

Phalacrocorax africanus (in a strict sense)
Phalacrocorax coronatus

mais certain authors regards this last Taxon as a subspecies of the African Cormorant ( Phalacrocorax africanus coronatus ).

The " term; cormoran" comes from old French corp , the corbel and " marenc" , of sea. The evolution of these terms gave cormareng to the 12th century, then cormaran at the 13th century.
" Phalacrocorax" comes from the fusion of two Greek terms: " korax" , the corbel and " phalakros" , bald person.
As for " africain" and " africanus" , these terms refer to the African continent, from where this bird is endemic.

Philately

Several countries emitted stamps with the effigy of this bird (see these stamps here: the Mauritania in 1964 and 1994, and the Rwanda in 1965.

Photographs and vidéos

Two pages of gallery photographs on African Bird Club
Gallery Calphotos
Flickr Gallery on Avibase
Video IBC: P.a.africanus adult drying his feathers (Lake Ziway, Ethiopia)
Video IBC: youthful P.a.africanus (marsh of Mabamba, Uganda)
Video IBC: Adult swimming and plunging P.a.africanus (Lake Ziway, Ethiopia)

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