The Indian Cormorant Explained

The Indian cormorant (Phalacrocorax fuscicollis), also called the Indian shag, is a slim, dark, medium-sized diving waterbird that fishes underwater in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and coastal lagoons across the Indian subcontinent. It is a resident species in India, easily recognised by its turquoise-blue eyes, long thin hooked bill and habit of standing with wings spread out to dry.

The Indian cormorant is one of three cormorants most often seen in India, alongside the larger great cormorant and the smaller little cormorant. It nests in mixed colonies with egrets, herons, storks and ibises. This article explains how to identify the Indian cormorant, where it lives, how it hunts, why it holds its wings open, how it breeds and how it differs from its relatives.

Key Takeaways

• The Indian cormorant is a resident waterbird of the Indian subcontinent that catches fish by diving and swimming underwater.
• Adult Indian cormorants have bright blue-green eyes, a slender hooked bill and, in breeding season, a white throat and fine white streaks on the head and neck.
• Cormorant feathers are only partly waterproof, so the Indian cormorant must perch with its wings stretched open to dry after fishing.
• The Indian cormorant is smaller and slimmer than the great cormorant and larger than the little cormorant, with a longer bill than the little cormorant.
• The Indian cormorant breeds in colonies in trees, often sharing the site with egrets, herons, spoonbills, ibises and storks.
• The Indian cormorant is not considered globally threatened, although the loss of wetlands and tree-nesting sites is a local concern.

What is the Indian cormorant?

The Indian cormorant is a medium-sized, mostly black waterbird in the cormorant family, Phalacrocoracidae, found throughout the Indian subcontinent from Pakistan and India through Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and east into parts of Southeast Asia. In India it lives on freshwater lakes, tanks, reservoirs and slow rivers, and also on estuaries and coastal lagoons.

Cormorants are a worldwide family of fish-eating waterbirds with hooked bills, webbed feet set far back on the body and a long neck. The Indian cormorant is one of the more graceful members of the group, slimmer and longer-tailed than many of its relatives. Its scientific species name fuscicollis comes from Latin for dusky-necked.

The bird is common in many Indian wetlands, though it is easily overlooked because it often sits low in the water or perches quietly on trees or posts at the water’s edge. Birdwatchers regularly record it on tanks, village ponds and large reservoirs, especially where there are tall trees nearby for roosting.

How do you identify an Indian cormorant?

You can identify an Indian cormorant by its slim build, long thin bill with a hooked tip, turquoise-blue eyes, a fairly long tail and blackish plumage that looks glossy in good light. It is roughly the size of a large crow stretched out, about 60 to 65 centimetres from bill to tail.

Breeding adult

In breeding plumage the Indian cormorant is a glossy blackish bird with a scattering of white speckles on the head and neck and a clear white throat patch. Fine whitish plumes may also be seen behind the eye. The back and wings look dark grey-brown with a scaly pattern formed by dark feather edges.

Non-breeding adult

Outside the breeding season the Indian cormorant is duller and browner. The white throat remains but is less sharply set off, and the speckling on the neck fades. The bird often looks dusky brown rather than black.

Juvenile

Young Indian cormorants are brown above and paler on the underparts, with a whitish throat and breast. They gradually darken to the adult colour over time.

Several features separate it from other cormorants when it is swimming. The Indian cormorant often swims with its body low and its bill tilted slightly upward, and its slim head and neck give it a snake-like look compared with the heavier great cormorant. The bird’s naked skin at the base of the bill is small and dusky, without the yellow, angular throat patch of the great cormorant.

How is the Indian cormorant different from other cormorants?

The Indian cormorant is intermediate in size between the little cormorant and the great cormorant, and it can be told apart from both by bill length, build and head pattern. Telling the three apart is a common beginner challenge for Indian birdwatchers.

Experienced observers often look first at the head and bill. The little cormorant has a short, almost finch-like bill and a steep forehead. The Indian cormorant has a long head profile that slopes gently into the bill. The great cormorant is clearly a heavier bird, often seen perched upright and bulky on rocks and snags.

Where does the Indian cormorant live?

The Indian cormorant lives in inland and coastal wetlands across the Indian subcontinent, favouring large freshwater lakes, reservoirs, tanks and rivers with open water, plus estuaries and lagoons. It is mainly a bird of the plains and peninsular uplands, and is less common in higher hills.

The species is a resident in India, though it moves locally in response to rainfall, water levels and food supply. After the monsoon, when tanks and reservoirs fill, birds gather at productive sites. In summer, as shallow wetlands dry, they concentrate at the larger permanent waters.

Well-known Indian wetlands where cormorants of various kinds are regularly seen include Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan, Nal Sarovar in Gujarat, Chilika Lake in Odisha, Kolleru Lake in Andhra Pradesh, Pulicat Lake on the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu border, and the backwaters of Kerala, as well as many city lakes and village tanks. The exact mix of cormorant species at a site changes with the season.

What does the Indian cormorant eat?

The Indian cormorant eats mostly fish, which it catches by diving, though it also takes prawns, shrimps, frogs, tadpoles and large aquatic insects when they are available. It usually selects small and medium-sized fish, often those that are slow and plentiful in shallow water.

A cormorant eats a large amount of food compared with its size, as diving is energetically demanding. Each bird may eat a considerable weight of fish daily. Because it takes what is common and easy to catch, the Indian cormorant rarely depends on a single species, and its diet reflects the local fish community.

After a catch is made, the bird usually surfaces and swallows the fish headfirst, tossing it in the air and positioning it if needed. Larger fish can take time to swallow. Small prey are often eaten underwater.

How does the Indian cormorant catch fish underwater?

The Indian cormorant catches fish by diving from the surface, propelling itself underwater with its large webbed feet and snatching prey in its hooked bill. It usually stays under for between ten and thirty seconds, though dive times vary with depth and the type of prey.

Before a dive, the bird often pushes its body low in the water, then kicks upward and forward in a neat arc, slipping under with hardly a splash. Underwater, the wings are held close to the body and the feet do the work. The long neck can dart forward quickly to seize a fish.

Indian cormorants often fish in groups, especially in shallow water or where fish are dense. Group fishing can help drive fish into a smaller area, and the birds sometimes work in a loose line across a pool. Mixed feeding flocks may also include egrets and other waders, which pick off fish that cormorants disturb.

Why does the Indian cormorant spread its wings?

The Indian cormorant spreads its wings because its feathers are not fully waterproof, and holding them open in the sun and wind helps them dry after fishing. This is typical of cormorants and gives the bird a distinctive heraldic pose when it perches on a branch or a snag.

Cormorants have less oil in their plumage than ducks and many other waterbirds. The feathers soak up some water, which reduces buoyancy and helps the bird dive, but a wet bird loses body heat quickly and cannot fly well. Drying lets the plumage regain its insulation and lightness.

Wing spreading may serve other purposes too, such as helping digestion by warming the body. Scientists have debated exactly how much each factor matters. What is clear is that a cormorant that has been fishing will usually come to a perch to dry for a while before diving again.

How does the Indian cormorant breed?

The Indian cormorant breeds in colonies, building stick nests in trees standing in or near water, and these are often shared with egrets, herons, storks, spoonbills and ibises in mixed heronries. The timing of the breeding season varies with the region and the monsoon, and is tied to water levels and food supply.

• Nest: a platform of twigs and sticks, lined with leaves or grass, placed in a tree such as a babul, acacia or mangrove, or sometimes on a bush or a bund.
• Eggs: usually three to four pale bluish-green eggs with a chalky white coating.
• Parents: both adults take turns incubating the eggs and feeding the young.
• Chicks: hatch naked and helpless, then grow dark down. They are fed by regurgitation of partly digested fish, reaching into the parent’s throat to take it.

The nesting trees often show white stains and defoliation from the birds’ droppings, called guano. Where colonies sit in village trees, local people have in many places protected them, because the guano is valued as fertiliser and the birds are seen as part of the village landscape. Disturbance, felling of nesting trees and drained wetlands can lead to colony abandonment.

Is the Indian cormorant endangered?

The Indian cormorant is not considered endangered, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has generally listed it as Least Concern because it is widespread and fairly numerous across its range. Its population is thought to be stable overall, though trends are not well monitored in every region.

Local threats nevertheless exist. They include the draining and pollution of wetlands, disturbance at breeding colonies, felling of nest trees and occasional persecution by fishermen who see cormorants as competitors. Pesticide runoff and entanglement in discarded fishing nets are other concerns.

In India, wild birds are protected under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which covers most native birds in some form. Protecting wetlands and heronry trees protects the Indian cormorant along with the many other waterbirds that share the site.

What is the cormorant’s role in people’s lives?

Cormorants affect people mainly through fisheries and through guano, and a few cultures have long trained cormorants to fish. Fish farmers sometimes see cormorants as pests at ponds and hatcheries, while ecologists point out that they are part of natural wetland food webs.

Traditional cormorant fishing, in which birds are trained to catch fish for a fisherman, is best known from China and Japan, and it is not a major tradition in modern India. In India the bird is more often noticed as a regular wetland resident and an indicator of healthy fish stocks. A thriving cormorant colony usually means that a lake has both fish and tall trees.

For birdwatchers, the Indian cormorant is a good example of a bird whose behaviour is easy to watch. Its diving, drying and colonial nesting can all be seen from the bank of an ordinary tank.

Bottom Line

The Indian cormorant is a slim blue-eyed diving bird that links India’s fish-rich wetlands with its heronry trees. It is secure globally, but depends on clean water, healthy fish stocks and safe nesting trees.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Indian cormorant?

The Indian cormorant is a medium-sized dark diving waterbird, Phalacrocorax fuscicollis, found across the Indian subcontinent. It has blue-green eyes, a slim hooked bill and a white throat. It fishes underwater in lakes, rivers and estuaries.

How do I tell an Indian cormorant from a little cormorant?

The Indian cormorant is larger and slimmer than the little cormorant and has a longer, thinner bill and a sloping head profile. The little cormorant has a short, stubby bill and a steeper forehead. Both are black waterbirds, so bill length and size are the best clues.

Why do cormorants stand with their wings open?

Cormorants spread their wings to dry them, because their feathers are only partly waterproof. This helps them regain warmth and lightness after diving. The pose may also aid digestion by warming the body.

What do Indian cormorants eat?

Indian cormorants eat mainly fish, which they catch by diving, and they also take prawns, frogs and aquatic insects. They usually select abundant small to medium fish. Prey is swallowed headfirst after being caught.

Where do Indian cormorants nest?

Indian cormorants nest in colonies in trees growing in or near water, often sharing sites with egrets, herons, storks and ibises. They build stick platforms and lay about three to four pale bluish-green eggs. Both parents incubate and feed the young.

Is the Indian cormorant a migratory bird?

The Indian cormorant is mainly a resident bird in India, and it makes only local movements in response to water levels and food supply. It does not undertake the long-distance migrations of many winter-visiting ducks and waders. Numbers at a given wetland can therefore rise and fall through the year.

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