10-10-2017 - VILLALONGA RESERVOIR, VALENCIA - EURASIAN GREAT CORMORANT (Phalacrocorax carbo)

Cormorants live a long time, and some of the older cormorants would keep fishing even without the rings and tethers. Into the 20th century in Macedonia and Greece, fishermen used captive cormorants to herd fish toward their nets. Great Cormorants often hold the wings open when they are out of the water.

Behavior. Great Cormorants form flocks year-round, even in nesting areas, but they seldom gather in large flocks like Double-crested. They spend most of the day quietly perched out of the water, preening, stretching, and resting.

Cormorants are expert divers, with webbed feet, streamlined bodies, and feathers that hold water and reduce buoyancy. They are believed to dive to depths of 8 to 25 feet. After feeding, cormorants characteristically dry their feathers by perching with their wings outstretched.

The Cormorant is a large, black waterbird whose size and colour make it very visible. With a reptilian neck, it has an almost prehistoric appearance. It is often seen standing with its wings held out to dry.

Cormorants' short wings make them incredibly agile swimmers, and cormorants actually use less energy swimming than when flying. In fact, they have the highest flight cost of any flying bird. Some cormorants are also known for their ability to use rocks as tools to help them open the shells of prey they have captured.

The key to their adaptable nature might be their intelligence -- as evidenced by their ability to accurately count beyond the number seven.

The Cormorant is a large, black waterbird whose size and colour make it very visible. With a reptilian neck, it has an almost prehistoric appearance. It is often seen standing with its wings held out to dry. Cormorants are supreme fishers which can bring them into conflict with fisherman and has seen them persecuted in the past. The UK holds internationally significant wintering numbers of cormorants.