A comparative display at the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch for the two small cormorant species in New Zealand, the Little Black Shag (Phalacrocorax sulcirostris) on the left and the Little Pied Shag (Phalacrocorax melanoleucos) on the right.
In the NZ form of Little Pied Shag (P. m. brevirostris) the juveniles are fully black in colour (unlike in Australia where the juveniles are pied) and so there is often confusion between these juvenile birds and the Little Black Shag. The most obvious difference between the two is in the bill - shorter and thicker, and yellowish in juvenile Little Pied Shags but longer and thinner, and always black in the Little Black Shag. The plumage of the Little Black Shag is also much glossier, which suprisingly comes across quite well in these museum specimens.
