Indian Cormorant

The Indian cormorant, or Indian shag, is a medium-sized bronze-brown cormorant, scalloped with black on the upperparts, with no crest, a small, slightly peaked head with a sloping forehead and a long, narrow bill ending in a hooked tip. It has blue eyes, which separate it from the similar-sized little cormorant, and bare yellow facial skin outside the breeding season, when it also grows a short white ear tuft. Any white on the throat is limited to below the gape, unlike the much larger great cormorant (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is gregarious and fishes in inland rivers and large wetlands, and also in estuaries and mangroves, but not on the open coast. Groups often fish together, forming a broad front to drive fish, and make short dives to catch them. It breeds very locally in dense mixed colonies with other cormorants, storks and waterbirds, building a platform of twigs in partly submerged trees or on islands, and lays three to five chalky bluish-green eggs. In India it is resident across a very large range; SoIB 2023 estimates a long-term increase of about 72% and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).