2021 05 05 Phalacrocorax carbo carbo, Killingworth Lake, Northumberland 1 2🐦

Photo: MPF · CC BY-SA 4.0

SpeciesSuliformesPhalacrocoracidae
Birds

🐦Great Cormorant

Phalacrocorax carbo (Linnaeus, 1758)

The great cormorant, also known as just cormorant in Britain, as black shag or kawau in New Zealand, formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It breeds in much of the Old World, Australasia, and the Atlantic coast of North America.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos
27
Photos
1
Measurements
13
vs you
≈ 1/25th of your weight
Conservation status
LCLeast concern

IUCN Red List assessment, 2019.

Population trendIncreasing
Key measurements
Body mass
2.53 kg
Body length
1.01 m
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
32 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Great Cormorant

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
2.53 kgrecord 2.5 kg · SeaLifeBase
AVONET
Other figures ↓

Record: largest individual on record

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

By sex

  • Male2.4 kgWikidataQ25440
  • Female2 kgWikidataQ25440

Figures vary

  • 3.63 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Body length
1.01 mmaximum recorded, total length
SeaLifeBase
Details ↓

Source: SeaLifeBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0

Tail length
0.15 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Wing length
0.34 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Beak length
0.08 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Tarsus length
0.06 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan
32 years
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Gestation
30 days
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Litter size
about 4
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Trophic level
Carnivore
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Habitat
Wetland
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Lifestyle
Aquatic
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
2.5 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Great Cormorant yet: shoulder height, top speed, bite force.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumChordata
  3. ›classAves
  4. ›orderSuliformes
  5. ›familyPhalacrocoracidae
  6. ›genusPhalacrocorax
  7. ›speciesPhalacrocorax carbo
Full lineage
  1. superclassTetrapoda
  2. orderSauria
  3. classBirds · Aves
  4. familyPhalacrocoracidae
All 10 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumChordata
  3. subphylumCraniata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. superclassGnathostomata
  6. superclassSarcopterygii
  7. superclassTetrapoda
  8. orderSauria
  9. classBirds · Aves
  10. familyPhalacrocoracidae
More

More about the Great Cormorant

Closest relative on this site
🐦 Black Stork — last shared an ancestor ≈ 72 million years ago.
In other languages
kormoran zwyczajny (pl), 普通鸬鹚 (zh), Cormorán grande (es), nagy kárókatona (hu), Κορμοράνος (el), storskarv (sv) … and 27 more languages

Animals caught on camera

Real footage of the animals on this site — hunting, fighting, and getting on with it.

See all 27 videos →
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