The bank cormorant (''Phalacrocorax neglectus''), also known as Wahlberg's cormorant, is a medium-sized

cormorant Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) ado ...

that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

and the western seaboard of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, living in and around coastal waters; it is rarely recorded more than 15 km offshore.

Description

The bank cormorant is a heavy-bodied bird, roughly 75 cm in length. It is generally black in appearance with a bronze sheen, though the wings are a dark brown rather than a true black. Adults have a small crest on their heads, and normally have a white rump. Pale eyes in an all black face are considered to be distinctive for adults, with immature birds having dark eyes.Princeton Illustrated Checklists-Birds of Southern Africa-Ber Van Perlo, 1999

Ecology

A prime food for these birds is the cape rock lobster ''Jasus lalandii'', and their feeding distribution closely matches the

kelp Kelps are large brown algae or seaweeds that make up the order (biology), order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genus, genera. Despite its appearance and use of photosynthesis in chloroplasts, kelp is technically not a plant but a str ...

beds where these lobsters live, though the birds will also take a variety of other crustacean and fish prey, notably bearded goby ''Sufflogobius bibarbatus''. The birds may breed at any time of the year, laying two or three chalky-white eggs in a nest constructed from seaweed and guano.

Conservation

left, Nesting in captivity Numbers of these birds have been declining sharply in recent decades, partly because of commercial fishing for bearded goby, partly because of increasing human disturbance, and partly because numbers of

kelp gull The kelp gull (''Larus dominicanus''), also known as the Dominican gull, is a gull that breeds on coasts and islands through much of the Southern Hemisphere. The nominate ''L. d. dominicanus'' is the subspecies found around South America, pa ...

s have been increasing because of human provisioning, and the gulls are active predators on the cormorant eggs and chicks. The world population is probably now around 4,000 birds. The most important population centres are in Mercury Island and Ichaboe Island in Namibia.

References

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet.
from the Animal Demography Unit of the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

* Bank Cormorant
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1266380 bank cormorant Birds of Southern Africa bank cormorant bank cormorant