The Little Cormorant Explained

The little cormorant (Microcarbo niger) is the smallest and commonest cormorant in India, a compact, glossy black diving waterbird that chases fish underwater and then perches with its wings spread out to dry. It turns up on almost every pond, village tank, reservoir, canal and lake across the subcontinent, often in loose flocks, and it is easily mistaken at first glance for a small crow sitting on the water.

In Hindi the cormorants are known as pan-kowwa, or “water crow”, and in Bengali as pankauri, names that capture the dark colour and the bird’s constant presence around water. The little cormorant is a resident species that nests in mixed colonies with herons, egrets and ibises, and this explainer covers how to identify it, where it lives, how it dives, why it holds out its wings, how it breeds and how it differs from other dark waterbirds.

Quick Facts

Key Takeaways

• The little cormorant is the smallest of India’s three common cormorants, measuring only about 50 to 56 cm in length.
• The little cormorant catches small fish by diving and swimming underwater, propelled by its fully webbed feet.
• The little cormorant spreads and holds out its wings after fishing because its feathers absorb water and need to dry before the bird can fly well.
• The little cormorant is classified as Least Concern by the IUCN and is one of the most widespread waterbirds of the Indian subcontinent.
• The little cormorant nests in colonies, usually in the company of herons, egrets, ibises and spoonbills, and lays about three to five pale blue-green eggs.
• The little cormorant can be told from the Indian cormorant and the great cormorant by its short bill, rounded head and much smaller size.

What is the little cormorant?

The little cormorant is a small waterbird in the family Phalacrocoracidae, which contains the cormorants and shags, and it is the smallest cormorant found in India. Its scientific name was long given as Phalacrocorax niger, but it is now usually placed in the genus Microcarbo, a group of small cormorants. The species is native to the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka and parts of Southeast Asia, and it lives mainly on fresh water.

Like all cormorants, the little cormorant has a long body, a hooked bill tip, four toes joined by webbing on each foot, and plumage that is not fully waterproof. These features make it a capable pursuit diver rather than a surface feeder, and they shape nearly everything about its daily life.

How can you identify a little cormorant?

A little cormorant is identified by its small size, glossy black plumage, short bill with a slight hook at the tip, rounded head and a fairly long, wedge-shaped tail. In the breeding season, adults develop a fine white speckling on the head and neck, giving a silky frosted look, and show a few small white tufts behind the eye. Outside the breeding season the plumage is duller and browner, and a pale or whitish chin and throat patch becomes visible.

What do young little cormorants look like?

Young little cormorants are brownish, with paler underparts and a whitish throat, and they lack the glossy black sheen of the adults. They gradually darken over their first year. Males and females look the same at all ages.

How is the little cormorant different from a crow?

The little cormorant differs from a crow in its swimming posture, its hooked bill and its habit of holding the wings open. A swimming cormorant sits low in the water with its body mostly submerged, whereas a crow will never swim. When perched, the cormorant stands upright on a branch, stake or rock near water and often hangs its wings out to dry, which no crow does.

Where is the little cormorant found in India?

The little cormorant is found throughout most of India wherever there is shallow fresh water, from plains and plateaus to the foothills of the Himalaya. It is common on village ponds, irrigation tanks, large reservoirs, rivers, canals, marshes and even city lakes. It is largely resident, though groups may move locally in response to rain, drying water bodies and food supply.

Beyond India, the little cormorant occurs in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and across Southeast Asia to Java. It is less common on saltwater coasts than on inland waters, though it may use brackish creeks and estuaries.

What does the little cormorant eat?

The little cormorant eats mainly small fish, along with tadpoles, frogs, aquatic insects, crustaceans such as small crabs and prawns, and occasionally worms or snails. Most of the fish it takes are small, often just a few centimetres to the length of a hand, and it favours the common species that live in ponds and tanks. Prey is generally swallowed whole, often after being brought to the surface and juggled into a head-first position.

A single bird can eat a significant amount of fish each day, which is why flocks have sometimes drawn complaints from people running fish farms. In natural waters, however, the little cormorant mainly takes abundant small fish and plays a normal part in the food web.

How does the little cormorant dive and fish?

The little cormorant dives by lowering its head, tipping forward and swimming down with powerful kicks of its webbed feet, using its tail as a rudder and keeping the wings tucked in. It usually stays underwater for around half a minute or less, then pops up, sometimes far from where it dived. Because its feathers soak up water, the bird sits low when swimming and sinks easily, which reduces the effort needed to stay under.

• Pursuit diving: The bird chases fish through the water, rather than waiting and ambushing them.
• Group fishing: Little cormorants sometimes fish in flocks, with birds driving shoals of fish into a tight group and taking turns to dive.
• Surfacing with prey: Larger fish are brought to the surface, positioned and swallowed head-first so the spines lie flat.
• Short dives: In shallow ponds the dives are brief, and the bird often surfaces within a few seconds.

Flocks may circle a pond, diving repeatedly, and the sight of many black heads bobbing up and down is characteristic of a productive fishing spot.

Why does the little cormorant spread its wings?

The little cormorant spreads its wings because its feathers are not completely waterproof, so after fishing the plumage is wet and the bird needs to dry it in the sun and air. This wet plumage helps the bird stay low in the water and dive with less effort, but it makes flight heavy and chilling in cold weather. Perching with the wings held open exposes the feathers to the wind and warmth until they dry.

Scientists have also suggested that the posture may help with warming up after a cold dive and with digestion, although drying remains the main accepted reason. Birds typically choose a favourite perch, such as a branch, a rock, a fence post or a boat, and return to it again and again.

How does the little cormorant breed?

The little cormorant breeds in colonies, building a platform nest of sticks and twigs in a tree or bush standing in or near water, often alongside herons, egrets, ibises and spoonbills. The breeding season varies with the region and the local rains: in much of northern India the birds nest during and after the monsoon, while in parts of southern India and Sri Lanka they breed mainly in the cooler months. The nest is a loose, untidy structure lined with leaves and twigs.

A typical clutch has three to five pale bluish-green eggs with a chalky coating, and both parents share incubation, which takes roughly three to four weeks. The chicks are born naked and are fed by regurgitation. They become covered in dark down, climb about on the branches and leave the nest in several weeks. Guano from a large colony can whiten and eventually kill the nesting trees, a feature familiar from many heronries in India.

How does the little cormorant differ from other cormorants and darters?

The little cormorant differs from the Indian cormorant and the great cormorant chiefly in being smaller, with a shorter bill and a rounder head, and it differs from the oriental darter in lacking the long snake-like neck and dagger bill. The table below sets out the main differences among the dark diving waterbirds of India.

A useful field rule is that a very small black bird floating on a pond is most likely a little cormorant, while a large bird with a long neck and a pointed bill is more likely to be a darter.

Is the little cormorant threatened?

The little cormorant is not threatened and is classified as Least Concern by the IUCN, because it is widespread, adaptable and numerous across South and Southeast Asia. It benefits from the many artificial and man-made water bodies in India, such as irrigation tanks, fish ponds and reservoirs. Its population is believed to be stable over most of its range, although precise counts are not available.

Even so, local colonies can suffer when nesting trees are felled, wetlands are drained, water becomes polluted or birds are persecuted at fish farms. Because the little cormorant nests alongside many other waterbirds, a colony that is lost usually means a whole heronry is lost with it.

Do little cormorants harm fisheries?

Little cormorants can reduce the stock in small, heavily stocked fish ponds, because a flock may take many small fish in a day, but their effect on natural waters is generally modest. Fish farmers sometimes cover ponds with netting or scare the birds away, and the conflict is one of the main reasons the species is disliked in aquaculture regions. In open tanks and reservoirs, the birds mostly take small, abundant fish and so seldom compete with human fishers for the larger, commercially valuable species.

How do little cormorants roost?

Little cormorants roost communally at night, gathering in the evening on the same trees, often over water, where dozens or even hundreds may settle together. They commute from scattered feeding ponds to these roosts at dusk and leave again at dawn, sometimes in long straggling lines. Roosts are often shared with egrets and herons, and the accumulated droppings can whiten the branches, which makes an active roost easy to spot from a distance.

What is the cultural place of the little cormorant?

The little cormorant appears in everyday Indian speech mainly through its local names, such as pan-kowwa in Hindi and pankauri in Bengali, both of which describe a “water crow”. Cormorants are familiar to fishing communities, who see them on the same waters and watch them as signs of where fish are gathering. Elsewhere in Asia, people have trained larger cormorants to fish for them, though the little cormorant is not used for this purpose.

Where and when can you watch little cormorants?

Little cormorants can be watched at almost any water body in India throughout the year, and they are easiest to see in the morning and late afternoon when they fish and then perch to dry. Wetland sanctuaries and bird parks with tree-nesting colonies, such as Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan, Ranganathittu in Karnataka and the many heronries of southern and eastern India, offer particularly rewarding sightings in the nesting season.

• Look for black birds sitting upright on stumps or branches over the water with their wings open.
• Scan the surface for a low-floating dark bird that suddenly disappears with a small splash.
• Check treetops over lakes in the nesting season for stick nests shared with egrets and herons.
• Watch from a distance, since disturbance can make birds abandon nests.

Bottom Line

The little cormorant is India’s smallest and commonest cormorant, a black diving bird that fishes underwater and dries its wings in the sun on ponds and lakes across the country. It is not at risk, but its colonies depend on the same trees and wetlands that shelter many other waterbirds.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a little cormorant?

The little cormorant is the smallest cormorant in India, a compact black diving waterbird about 50 to 56 cm long. It fishes by swimming underwater and is common on ponds, tanks, reservoirs and rivers across the subcontinent. Its Hindi name is pan-kowwa, meaning water crow.

Why does the little cormorant spread its wings?

The little cormorant spreads its wings to dry them after fishing, because its feathers absorb water instead of shedding it. Wet plumage helps the bird dive but makes flying heavy and cold. Holding the wings open in the sun and wind dries the feathers, and it may also help the bird warm up.

How is the little cormorant different from the Indian cormorant?

The little cormorant is smaller than the Indian cormorant, with a shorter bill, a rounder head and a shorter neck. The Indian cormorant is about 60 to 65 cm long with a longer, slimmer hooked bill and a blue-green eye. The two often share the same waters, so size and bill length are the best guides.

What does the little cormorant eat?

The little cormorant eats mostly small fish, tadpoles, frogs, aquatic insects and small crustaceans. It catches them by diving and chasing them underwater, then swallows them whole, usually head-first. Groups sometimes fish together by driving shoals into tight packs.

Is the little cormorant a migratory bird?

No, the little cormorant is mainly a resident bird in India and does not make long seasonal migrations. Flocks may move locally when ponds dry up or food becomes scarce, but they remain within the region. Numbers at a particular lake can therefore change with the season.

Is the little cormorant endangered?

No, the little cormorant is classified as Least Concern by the IUCN because it is widespread and common. It benefits from India’s many ponds, tanks and reservoirs. Local colonies can still be lost when nesting trees are cut or wetlands are drained.

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