Neotropic cormorant
Neotropic cormorant | |
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N. b. mexicanum Guatemala | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Suliformes |
Family: | Phalacrocoracidae |
Genus: | Nannopterum |
Species: | N. brasilianum
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Binomial name | |
Nannopterum brasilianum (Gmelin, 1789)
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Range of Nannopterum brasilianum Accidental occurrence Resident
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Synonyms | |
Phalacrocorax olivaceus (Humboldt, 1805) |
The neotropic cormorant or olivaceous cormorant (Nannopterum brasilianum) is a medium-sized
Taxonomy
The neotropic cormorant was documented in 1658 by the Dutch naturalist
The neotropic cormorant was formerly placed in the genus
Two subspecies are recognised:[11]
- N. b. mexicanum (Brandt, JF, 1837) – inland and coastal Great Plains (central USA) from South Dakota and Kansas to the Gulf of Mexico, and Mexico to Nicaragua; Bahamas and Cuba
- N. b. brasilianum (Gmelin, JF, 1789) – inland and coastal Costa Rica to Tierra del Fuego
Description
This bird is 64 cm (25 in) long with a 100 cm (39 in) wingspan. Adult males weigh from 1.1 to 1.5 kg (2.4 to 3.3 lb), adult females 50 to 100 g (1.8 to 3.5 oz) less. Birds of the southern populations tend to be bigger than the more northerly birds. It is small and slender, especially compared to the larger, heavier-looking
Behaviour
Unlike other cormorants, this bird can often be seen perching on wires.
Food and feeding
Its diet consists mainly of small fish, but will also eat tadpoles, frogs, aquatic insects (such as dragonfly nymphs), and shrimp.[13] Information about its prey is sparse, but inland birds seem to feed on small, abundant fish in ponds and sheltered inlets, less than 10 cm (3.9 in) in length, with an individual weight of a gram or two, such as Poecilia species especially the sailfin molly Poecilia latipinna. This cormorant forages for food by diving underwater, propelling itself by its feet. Its dives are brief, between 5 and 15 seconds. It is also known to forage in groups, with several birds beating the water with their wings to drive fish forward into shallows.
Breeding
Neotropic cormorants are monogamous and breed in colonies. The nest is a platform of sticks with a depression in the center circled with twigs and grass. It is built a few meters above the ground or water in bushes or trees. Up to five chalky, bluish-white eggs are laid. Most pairs lay three eggs, but the mean number hatched is less than two. The eggs soon become nest-stained. Both sexes incubate for about 25–30 days, and both parents feed the young until around the 11th week. By week 12, they are independent. One brood is raised per year.
This bird is largely a permanent resident, with some birds occasionally wandering north in the warmer months.
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Flying in Argentina
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New Mexico
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in Costa Rica
References
- . Retrieved 27 April 2022.
- ^ Piso, Willem (1658). De Indiae utriusque re naturali et medica libri quatuordecim, quorum contenta pagina sequens exhibet (in Latin). Amstelaedami: Apud Ludovicum et Danielem Elzevirios. p. 83.
- ^ Gmelin, Johann Friedrich (1789). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 2 (13th ed.). Lipsiae [Leipzig]: Georg. Emanuel. Beer. p. 564.
- ^ von Humboldt, Alexander; Bonpland, A. (1811). Recueil d'observations de zoologie et d'anatomie comparée (in French). Vol. 1. Paris: Chez F. Schoell. p. 6. The volume is dated 1811 on the title page but the first part was issued in 1805.
- ^ Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1979). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 169-170.
- JSTOR 4162695.
- JSTOR 4088140.
- PMID 24994028.
- ^ Sharpe, Richard Bowdler (1899). A Hand-List of the Genera and Species of Birds. Vol. 1. London: Trustees of the British Museum. p. 235.
- .
- ^ Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2022). "Storks, frigatebirds, boobies, darters, cormorants". IOC World Bird List Version 12.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
- ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ "Phalacrocorax brasilianus (Neotropic cormorant)".
- Johnsgaard, P. A. (1993), Cormorants, darters and pelicans of the world. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
- Kaufman, Kenn; Lives of North American Birds. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, NY (1996). ISBN 0-395-77017-3
- World Wildlife Fund. 2010. Petenes mangroves. eds. Mark McGinley, C.Michael Hogan & C. Cleveland. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment. Washington DC
- Alsop, Fred J. III; Birds of Texas. Smithsonian Handbooks: DK Publishing, Inc. (2002). ISBN 0-7894-8388-2
External links
- "Neotropic cormorant media". Internet Bird Collection.
- Neotropic cormorant photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
- Neotropic Cormorant, Cornell University of Ornithology
- Citizen science observations for Neotropic cormorant at iNaturalist