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Australian Wildlife

  Black-faced Cormorant (Phalacrocorax fuscescens)





Black-faced Cormorant | Phalacrocorax fuscescens photo
Black-faced Cormorant (Phalacrocorax fuscescens), Derwent River Estuary, Tasmania, Australia

Image by JJ Harrison (http://www.noodlesnacks.com/) - Some rights reserved.    (view image details)

Black-faced Cormorant | Phalacrocorax fuscescens photo
Black-faced Cormorant (Phalacrocorax fuscescens), Kettering, Tasmania, Australia

Image by JJ Harrison (http://www.noodlesnacks.com/) - Some rights reserved.    (view image details)

Black-faced Cormorant | Phalacrocorax fuscescens photo
Phalacrocorax fuscescens Roosting, Bruny Island, Tasmania, Australia

Image by JJ Harrison (http://www.noodlesnacks.com/) - Some rights reserved.    (view image details)







BIRD FACTS

Description
The Black-faced Cormorant is a large cormorant with black upper parts, a bare black face, and white under parts. The legs and feet are black and there is a black mark on the thigh. The bill is dark grey, and the eyes are blue-green. After diving they sit with wings outstretched to dry their feathers.

Other Names
Black-faced Shag

Size
60cm - 70cm

Habitat
coastal waters in bays, inlets, rocky headlands and islands.

Food
small fish caught by diving from the surface

Breeding
Black-faced Cormorants breed in large colonies on off-shore islands. The nest made of seaweed and grasses on bare rock. Three to five eggs are laid.

Range
southern coasts of mainland Australia and Tasmania

distribution map showing range of Phalacrocorax fuscescens in Australia

Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.



Classification
Class:Aves
Order:Pelecaniformes
Family:Phalacrocoracidae
Genus:Phalacrocorax
Species:fuscescens
Common Name:Black-faced Cormorant

Relatives in same Genus
  Great Cormorant (P. carbo)
  Little Pied Cormorant (P. melanoleucos)
  Little Black Cormorant (P. sulcirostris)
  Pied Cormorant (P. varius)