The Zoochat Photographic Guide to Suliformes

Heard Island Shag Leucocarbo nivalis
Monotypic

The HBW treats this species as a subspecies of the Imperial Shag Leucocarbo atriceps.



Restricted to Heard Island in the southern Indian Ocean.



There are no photos of this species in the Zoochat galleries.
 
Chatham Island Shag Leucocarbo onslowi
Monotypic



Restricted to the Chatham Islands, east of New Zealand.



Photo by @joe99 in the wild, Chatham Islands.

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Chatham Islands Shag (Phalacrocorax onslowi) 2020 - ZooChat



A taxidermy specimen of an adult inbreeding plumage can also be seen here in a photo by @Chlidonias at Te Papa (New Zealand): Chatham Island Shag (Leucocarbo onslowi) - ZooChat
 
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Macquarie Island Shag Leucocarbo purpurascens
Monotypic

The HBW treats this species as a subspecies of the Imperial Shag Leucocarbo atriceps.



Restricted to Macquarie Island and the nearby Bishop and Clerk Islands (all territories of Australia, but situated south of New Zealand).



There are no photos of this species in the Zoochat galleries.
 
Bounty Island Shag Leucocarbo ranfurlyi
Monotypic



Restricted to the Bounty Islands (in the New Zealand subantarctic).



There are no photos of this species in the Zoochat galleries.
 
Foveaux Shag Leucocarbo stewarti
Monotypic



Restricted to Stewart Island and Foveaux Strait, at the bottom of the South Island of New Zealand.


Until 2016 the Foveaux Shag L. stewarti and the Otago Shag L. chalconotus were combined as a single species, called the Stewart Island Shag Leucocarbo chalconotus, which had a distribution covering the Otago coast, Foveaux Strait, and Stewart Island (all at the lower end of the South Island of New Zealand). The population was not divided subspecifically, but it was known that there were two groups distinguished by, in particular, the extent and colour of facial carunculation, body size, and breeding season. Genetic studies have shown that the two groups are not closely related despite their superficial resemblance to one another, and that the northern group (now Otago Shag) is actually a sister taxon to the Chatham Island Shag Leucocarbo onslowi rather than to the southern group. The southern species split from L. chalconotus was named the Foveaux Shag Leucocarbo stewarti.


Note that HBW Alive still retains "Stewart Island Shag Leucocarbo chalconotus" for both species.



Photo by @Chlidonias in the wild, New Zealand.

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Foveaux Shags (Leucocarbo stewarti) - ZooChat
 
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Kerguelen Shag Leucocarbo verrucosus
Monotypic



Restricted to the Kerguelan Islands, in the southern Indian Ocean.



There are no photos of this species in the Zoochat galleries.
 
@Chlidonias I have uploaded three photos of Ecuadorian suliforms: a male Magnificent Frigatebird from the Galápagos and two of Blue-footed Boobies. One is of wild birds from the Galápagos, the other is from captive birds in the Andes; I'm not sure which subspecies the last ones are, can you see the difference between excisa and nebouxii?
 
AWP said:
@Chlidonias I have uploaded three photos of Ecuadorian suliforms: a male Magnificent Frigatebird from the Galápagos and two of Blue-footed Boobies. One is of wild birds from the Galápagos, the other is from captive birds in the Andes; I'm not sure which subspecies the last ones are, can you see the difference between excisa and nebouxii?
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Excellent - I have added in all three of those photos.

The Galapagos excisa are larger and "paler" than the mainland nebouxii. Photos online of Galapagos birds are variable, but looking at photos from Peru the wings in particular seem much darker in mainland birds than in Galapagos birds. The birds in your photo from Bioparque Amaru look good for being nebouxii. In the post I've hedged my bets by writing "I think" they are that subspecies.

I don't suppose you managed to see and photograph any Flightless Cormorants when in the Galapagos? There are no photos in the gallery for that species.
 
Chlidonias said:
I don't suppose you managed to see and photograph any Flightless Cormorants when in the Galapagos? There are no photos in the gallery for that species.
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There was some rumour our Galápagos tour would bring us to Isla Isabela, but it was a false one, so no penguins or flightless cormorants. However, I won't complain about the special waterbirds seen with boobies, Galápagos pintails, noddies, lava gulls, lava herons and shearwaters.

I do have photos of multiple species of African and Australian cormorants, but I'm not sure of which species exactly (for sure two species of Microcarbo).
 
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Microcarbo
Five species, all of which are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


Long-tailed or Reed Cormorant Microcarbo africanus
Crowned Cormorant Microcarbo coronatus
Little Pied Cormorant Microcarbo melanoleucos
Little Cormorant Microcarbo niger
Pigmy Cormorant Microcarbo pygmaeus



This genus is basal to the other genera and contains the smallest cormorant species, as is emphasised by the generic name Microcarbo ("tiny cormorant") and by the common names. They are mostly of a tropical distribution, being found throughout Africa and tropical Asia through to Australia, as well as in the somewhat-less-tropical southeast Europe and New Zealand. Most species are predominantly freshwater birds, with only the Crowned Cormorant being a fully marine species.



The photo below, taken in India by @Chlidonias, illustrates how small Microcarbo species are in relation to most other cormorants: on the left is an Asian Little Cormorant Microcarbo niger and on the right is a Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo.

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size comparison - Asian Little Cormorant (P. niger) and Great Cormorant (P. carbo) - ZooChat
 
Long-tailed or Reed Cormorant Microcarbo africanus
Two subspecies: africanus and pictilis

Only the nominate subspecies africanus is represented in the Zoochat galleries.


M. a. africanus is found throughout subsaharan Africa.

M. a. pictilis is found only in Madagascar.


The Crowned Cormorant Microcarbo coronatus has often been considered conspecific with M. africanus but it is a coastal marine species which occurs in close sympatry with the more widespread species without interbreeding.



Photo by @Hix in the wild, Uganda - adult bird in breeding plumage (in centre), and juveniles.

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Long-tailed Cormorant - ZooChat
 
Crowned Cormorant Microcarbo coronatus
Monotypic



Restricted to the coastlines of southwest Africa (South Africa and Namibia).



Photo by @lintworm in the wild, South Africa - a mixed breeding colony of Bank Cormorants (Phalacrocrax neglectus) and Crowned Cormorants. The latter species are the smaller birds, e.g. the lower group on the left side of the photo.

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Cormorant colony - ZooChat


Photo by @Giant Eland in the wild, South Africa - probably a Crowned Cormorant but the species is very similar to Reed Cormorants (Microcarbo africanus), and formerly considered conspecific.

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Crowned Cormorant (Microcarbo coronatus) ID? - ZooChat
 
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Little Pied Cormorant Microcarbo melanoleucos
Three subspecies: brevicauda, brevirostris, melanoleucos

Only the subspecies brevirostris and melanoleucos are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


M. m. brevicauda is endemic to Rennell Island in the Solomon Islands (east of New Guinea).

M. m. brevirostris is found only in New Zealand.

M. m. melanoleucos is found from Sulawesi and the Lesser Sundas east through to Australia and New Caledonia.



Photo by @Terry Thomas in the wild, New Zealand - adult bird of the subspecies brevirostris, of the pied morph.

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Little pied cormorant - ZooChat


Photo by @WhistlingKite24 in the wild, New Zealand - adult bird of the subspecies brevirostris, of the white-throated morph. The New Zealand subspecies is unique in having two different colour morphs, both of which are common throughout the country.

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Little Pied Cormorant - ZooChat


Photo by @Chlidonias at Wellington Zoo (New Zealand) - juvenile bird of the subspecies brevirostris. In this New Zealand subspecies the juvenile birds are always entirely black, whereas in the other two subspecies the juveniles are pied.

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Juvenile Little Pied Shag (Microcarbo melanoleucos) - ZooChat


This photo by @Chlidonias of a museum display also shows a juvenile M. m. brevirostris (alongside a Little Black Cormorant Phalacrocorax sulcirostris): Comparison of two New Zealand cormorant species - ZooChat


Photo by @Terry Thomas in the wild, Australia - adult bird of the subspecies melanoleucos.

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Little pied cormorant 2 - ZooChat


Photo by @WhistlingKite24 in the wild, Australia - juvenile bird of the subspecies melanoleucos. Note the more extensive black colouration on the head as compared to the adult bird above; and especially note the very different appearance to the juvenile of the New Zealand subspecies depicted earlier.

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Wild Little Pied Cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleucos) - ZooChat
 
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Nannopterum
Three species, two of which are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


Double-crested Cormorant Nannopterum auritus
Neotropical or Olivaceous Cormorant Nannopterum brasilianus (syn. N. olivaceus)
Flightless or Galapagos Cormorant Nannopterum harrisi (not depicted here)



These three species are all from the Americas. Somewhat ironically the genus was originally created solely for the Galapagos Cormorant (the other two species being placed in Phalacrocorax) and means "tiny wings". The genetics also suggest, surprisingly, that the Galapagos Cormorant is not a recent derivation of one of the mainland species, but is much older than either of them.
 
Double-crested Cormorant Nannopterum auritus
Five subspecies: albociliatus, auritus, cincinatus, floridanus, heuretus

The subspecies albociliatus, auritus, and floridanus are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


N. a. albociliatus is found in the western states of North America, from Vancouver Island to the Gulf of California.

N. a. auritus is found in eastern and central North America, wintering south to the Gulf of Mexico.

N. a. cincinatus is found in the Aleutian Islands to southeast Alaska.

N. a. floridanus is found in the southeastern USA to Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico).

N. a. heuretus is from San Salvador Island in the southern Bahamas.



Photo by @Great Argus in the wild, USA - adult bird of the subspecies albociliatus, with a juvenile just on the edge of the frame to the right.

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Double-crested Cormorant - ZooChat


Photo by @red river hog in the wild, USA - juvenile bird on left and adult bird with breeding plumes on right, both of the subspecies auritus.

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Brandywine Park - Double-crested Cormorants - ZooChat


Photo by @DesertTortoise at Saint Louis Zoo (USA) - adult bird with breeding plumes. In this species the head plumes can be black as in the preceding photo, white as here, or a mixture of black and white.

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Double-crested Cormorant - ZooChat


Photo by @Semioptera in the wild, USA - non-breeding adults / immature birds of the subspecies auritus.

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Double-crested Cormorant (Nannopterum auritum) - ZooChat


Photo by @ralph in the wild, Mexico (on the Yucatan Peninsula) - adult bird of the subspecies floridanus.

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Double crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) - ZooChat


Photo by @Maguari at Busch Wildlife Sanctuary (USA) - juvenile bird of the subspecies floridanus.

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Double-crested Cormorant at Busch Wildlife Sanctuary, 14/10/13 - ZooChat
 
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Neotropical or Olivaceous Cormorant Nannopterum brasilianus
(N. olivaceus has commonly been used for this species, but it is a junior synonym)
Two subspecies: brasilianus and mexicanus

Both subspecies are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


N. b. brasilianus is found throughout South America.

N. b. mexicanus is found from the southern USA to Panama, as well as Cuba and The Bahamas.



Photo by @Therabu in the wild, Brazil - adult bird of the subspecies brasilianus coming into breeding plumage.

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Neotropic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax brasilianus) - ZooChat


Photo by @cockroach at the Vesty Pakos Zoo (Bolivia) - juvenile bird of the subspecies brasilianus.

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Water birds - ZooChat


Photo by @vogelcommando in the wild, Mexico - adult bird of the subspecies mexicanus coming into breeding plumage.

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Neotropic cormorant - ZooChat


Photo by @ralph in the wild, Mexico - immature bird of the subspecies mexicanus.

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Neotropic cormorant (Phalacrocorax brasilianus) - ZooChat


Photo by @Newzooboy in the wild, Costa Rica - juvenile bird of the subspecies mexicanus.

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Neotropical Cormorant - Mar 2019 - ZooChat
 
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Flightless or Galapagos Cormorant Nannopterum harrisi
Monotypic



Endemic to the Galapagos Islands.



There are no photos of this species in the Zoochat galleries.
 
Phalacrocrax
Nine or ten species, all of which are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


Cape Cormorant Phalacrocorax capensis

Temminck's or Japanese Cormorant Phalacrocorax capillatus

Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo

Black-faced Cormorant Phalacrocorax fuscescens

Indian Cormorant Phalacrocorax fuscicollis

White-breasted Cormorant Phalacrocorax lucidus (treated as a subspecies of P. carbo in HBW)

Wahlberg's or Bank Cormorant Phalacrocorax neglectus

Socotra Cormorant Phalacrocorax nigrogularis

Little Black Cormorant Phalacrocorax sulcirostris

Pied Cormorant Phalacrocorax varius



The genus Phalcrocorax has traditionally been used to contain all or most species of cormorants. Following the treatment of genera in the 2014 paper "Classification of the cormorants of the world" by Kennedy and Spencer (available to read online), which is followed by HBW, the genus is restricted to the the above list of species plus the two species which I have retained in Stictocarbo (which I have done simply because it is a well-used genus for those two species).



The genus has an Old World distribution, with almost all species being from the Southern Hemisphere. The Great Cormorant is the obvious exception to this general rule, being found along the coast of eastern North America and throughout Europe and Asia, as well as in Australasia (and in subsaharan Africa if P. lucidus is treated as a subspecies).



Most of the species in the genus are large birds (e.g. the Great Cormorant, as its name suggests, is one of the largest of all cormorant species) but the Little Black Cormorant is only the size of a Microcarbo. The photo below by @Chlidonias shows a comparative display at the Canterbury Museum (New Zealand) with a Little Black Cormorant Phalacrocorax sulcirostris on the left and a juvenile Little Pied Cormorant Microcarbo melanoleucos brevirostris on the right.

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Comparison of two New Zealand cormorant species - ZooChat
 
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