4

Great Cormorant

(Phalacrocorax carbo)
Alternative names: "Black Cormorant", "Black Shag"
Size: 80-85 cm; wing span 1.3-1.5 m

Habitat
(for details refer to a field guide)

Great Cormorants inhabit basically the entire coastal fringe around Australia, including Tasmania, and the northern tropics, plus the eastern half of the continent. This includes the coastal waters out to the continental shelf and the Torres and Bass Straits. They are only occasionally, after significant rainfall, found in the arid interior of WA, the central and south-western NT and western SA.

Great Cormorants can be found in any type of aquatic habitat (both fresh water and saline), from the open sea and estuaries to rivers, lakes and dams.

Sightings

Probably seen by us before, but at distances too large to distinguish them unambiguously from Little Black Cormorants. Positive identification was possible from photos of birds seen at Glenlyon Dam in southern QLD in October 2007.

Subsequently seen and identified without any doubt at Brewarrina, western NSW, in October 2010.

A small flock of Great Cormorants was spotted by us at Goran Lake, an ephemeral lake about 30 km south of Gunnedah, NSW, in October 2011.

Photos