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Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) — photo 1 of 3
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Cormorants · Cormorants and gannets

Great Cormorant

Phalacrocorax carbo

Year-round

Voice

Call

Sonothèque ADVL

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Call

Sonothèque ADVL

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Call

Sonothèque ADVL

0:12

How to recognize it

  • Large black diver with a long neck and hooked bill

  • Green-bronze sheen on wings and back; adults show yellow bare skin at the base of the bill

  • Heavy, direct flight with frequent wingbeats; on land stands nearly upright

  • After feeding, often sits with wings held half open to dry

About the species

The Great Cormorant has a large, dark, stripped-down look, with a long neck and a hooked bill. Its habit of standing upright and looking ready to dive makes it easy to notice even at a distance.

Away from the colony it is quiet, but near the nest it turns noisy and rough-voiced. On land it moves with a heavy waddle, yet in water it is in its element, swimming and diving well; after feeding, it often sits with wings held open to dry.

It lives along coasts and inland waters, usually in colonies. It feeds mainly on fish caught underwater, and northern populations move south in winter to unfrozen waters.

Did you know?

  • Wettable feathers, lethal in winter

    Great Cormorants need partially wettable feathers to dive efficiently for fish, but those same feathers kill them in winter — soaked through in cold rainstorms, adults freeze to death in their colonies en masse.

  • Buoyancy management

    Underwater, the Great Cormorant voluntarily cancels its buoyancy, squeezing the last of the air out from beneath its feathers and bringing its body's specific gravity down to one.

Where to find

  • Along embankments, piers, and bridge supports by the water — early in the morning, Great Cormorant often sits in rows with wings spread, drying off after dives.

  • At canal banks, harbour edges, and quiet inlets, watch for it on logs, pilings, or rocks — it dives for fish and resurfaces with prey.

  • On reed-fringed islands and overgrown shore thickets, colonies make a low croaking racket, and adults are busy feeding chicks.

  • On unfrozen winter water, look along the open edge and near reeds — it keeps diving, then climbing back onto shore to dry.

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