Little Cormorant in the heart of Delhi city, in its wild habitat at the Delhi Zoo, on a Vilayati kikar or Prosopis juliflora tree.
The Little Cormorant or Microcarbo niger is a member of the Cormorant family of seabirds. Slightly smaller than the Indian Cormorant it lacks a peaked head and has a shorter beak. It is found widely distributed across the Indian Subcontinent and extending east to Java where it is sometimes called the Javanese Cormorant. It forages singly or sometimes in loose groups in lowland freshwater bodies including small ponds, large lakes, streams and sometimes coastal estuaries. Like other cormorants, they are often found perched on a waterside rock with their wings spread out after coming out of the water. The entire body is black in the breeding season but the plumage is brownish and the throat has a small whitish patch in the non-breeding season. They breed gregariously in trees, often joining other water birds at heronries.
The Little Cormorant is about 50 centimetres long and only slightly smaller than the Indian Cormorant. The Indian Cormorant has a narrower and longer bill with ends in a prominent hook tip, blue iris and a more pointed head profile. The breeding adult bird has a glistening all black plumage with some white spots and filoplumes on the face. There is also a short crest on the back of the head. The eyes, gular skin and face are dark. In the non-breeding bird or juvenile, the plumage is brownish and the bill and gular skin can appear fleshier. The crest becomes inconspicuous and a small and well-marked white patch on the throat is sometimes visible. Towards the west of the Indus river valley, its range can overlap with vagrant Pygmy Cormorants which can be difficult to differentiate in the field and is sometimes even considered to be nonspecific. The sexes are indistinguishable in the field but males tend to be larger. Some abnormal silvery-grey plumages have been described.
The species was described by Vieillot in 1817 as Hydrocorax niger. The genus Hydrocorax literally means water crow. It was later included with the other cormorants in the genus Phalacrocorax but some studies place the smaller "microcormorants" under the genus Microcarbo. The Little Cormorant is found across India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and lowland Nepal. They are also found in parts of Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Indonesia. It is not found in the Himalayas but vagrants have been seen in Ladakh. They are found in a range of wetlands ranging from small village ponds to large lakes and sometimes in tidal estuaries.
Source - Wikipedia
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