'PHALACROCORACIDAE', THE SPECTACULAR CORMORANTS

Today, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have continued birdwatching in the Llobregat Delta. 

It has been a very special day because they were able to watch different migratory species, such as the cormorant, that do not live in the Delta there all year round. 

Cormorants have long been the subject of folklore and fable, though not always good. In Norwegian tradition, it's believed spirits of loved ones lost at sea take the form of cormorants to visit living relatives, while in cosmic symbology the birds represent resourcefulness, courage and ingenuity. Besides, it is one of the birds that William Shakespeare refers to most often in his works as a symbol of avarice, greed and power.

There are different Phalacrocoracidae members and the species they have been able to see is the pygmy cormorant (Microcarbo pygmaeus), a member of the cormorant family of seabirds that breeds in south-eastern Europe and south-western Asia. It is partially migratory, with northern populations wintering further south, mostly within its breeding range. It is a rare migrant to western Europe.

Last year, Claire and The Grandma could watch some species of Gulosus aristotelis, another member of Phalacrocoracidae, in Torungen (Norway) and in Kirkjubøur (Faroe Islands). That is why it is so exciting to be able to watch this species again. 

The European shag or common shag (Gulosus aristotelis) is a species of cormorant. It is the only member of the monotypic genus Gulosus. It breeds around the rocky coasts of western and southern Europe, southwest Asia and north Africa, mainly wintering in its breeding range except for the northernmost birds. In Britain this seabird is usually referred to as simply the shag. The scientific genus name derives from the Latin for glutton. The species name aristotelis commemorates the Greek philosopher Aristotle.

The European shag was formerly classified within the genus Phalacrocorax, but a 2014 study found it to be significantly more diverged than the clade containing Phalacrocorax and Urile, but basal to the clade containing Nannopterum and Leucocarbo, and thus classified it in its own genus, Gulosus. 

The IOC followed this classification in 2021.

Gulosus is thought to have split from the Nannopterum-Leucocarbo clade between 9.0-11.2 million years ago.

There are three subspecies:

-G. a. aristotelis  (Linnaeus, 1761): Nominate, found in northwestern Europe (Atlantic Ocean coasts)

-G. a. desmarestii (Payraudeau, 1826): Found in southern Europe, southwest Asia (Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts)

-G. a. riggenbachi  (Hartert, 1923). Found in northwest African coast

The subspecies differ slightly in bill size and the breast and leg colour of young birds. Recent evidence suggests that birds on the Atlantic coast of southwest Europe are distinct from all three, and may be an as-yet undescribed subspecies.

The name shag is also used in the Southern Hemisphere for several additional species of cormorants.

This is a medium-large black bird, 68 to 78 cm long and with a 95-to-110-centimetre wingspan. It has a longish tail and a yellow throat patch. Adults have a small crest in the breeding season. It is distinguished from the great cormorant by its smaller size, lighter build, thinner bill, and, in breeding adults, by the crest and metallic green-tinged sheen on the feathers. Among those differences are that a shag is smaller and has a lighter, narrower beak, and the juvenile shag has darker underparts. The European shag's tail has 12 feathers, as do the great cormorant's 14 feathers. The green sheen on the feathers results in the alternative name green cormorant sometimes being given to the European shag.

It feeds in the sea, and, unlike the great cormorant, is rare inland. It will winter along any coast that is well-supplied with fish. The European shag is one of the deepest divers among the cormorant family. Using depth gauges, European shags recorded diving up to 61 m deep. European shags are preponderantly benthic zone feeders, i.e. they find their prey on the sea bottom. They will eat a wide range of fish but their commonest prey is the sand eel. Shags will travel many kilometres from their roosting sites in order to feed.

The shag is a pursuit-diving seabird that feeds predominantly in benthic habitats. Due to the relative ease with which diet samples can be collected from this species (regurgitated food or pellets) and the perceived conflict between the Phalacrocoracidae and fisheries, shag diet competition has been the subject of substantial scientific interest. Evidence collected at one colony, the Isle of May, Scotland, between 1985 and 2014, suggests that shag chick diet composition in this population has diversified in response to ocean warming. Shags also feed on fewer sandeel on windy days, presumably due to the strong effect of wind on flight in this species. The year-round diet of full-grown shags at this colony has also changed over the past 3 decades, from sandeel specialists to an increasingly diverse prey base.

The European shag can be readily seen among the following locations during the breeding season, between late April and mid-July: Saltee Islands, Ireland; Farne Islands and Isles of Scilly, England; Isle of May, Deerness and Fowlsheugh, Scotland; Runde, Norway; Iceland; Denmark; Faroe Islands; Galicia, Northern Spain; Dalmatia and Istria, Croatia. In April 2017, eight new European shags were born in Monaco.

More information: BTO

 The Cormorant is not easily induced to affability, nor I to flattery.
His best seruice is harsh and vnsociable, so is my style. 
His biting is sharpe and piercing, so is my phrase. 
His throat is wide and spacious, my subiect is spacious. 
His co­lour is blacke, I discouer deeds of darknesse. 
He grubs and spuddles for his prey in muddy holes and obscure cauerns, 
my Muse ferrits base debaushed wretches in their swinish dens.

John Taylor