Family: Phalacrocoracidae
An adult great cormorant.
Large black bird with a long neck. The beak is long and hooked, evolved to catch fish. Has webbed feet to be able to dive and swim underwater. During breeding season, its nape gets covered in white feathers.
It’s a widely distributed species across Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania, though not continuously. It’s also extant on the Atlantic coast of North America, including Greenland’s eastern coast. It’s not exclusively a marine bird: it’s also frequent inland wherever there are big enough rivers, lakes or dams.
The great cormorant is a partially migratory species across a large part of its area of distribution. In much of Europe and the northern half of Asia it’s only present during the summer while it’s mating and nesting, and in the winter it migrates southward. In the Iberian Peninsula, there are some population nuclei extant throughout the whole year, which spread across the Peninsula during winter. Between this and the individuals coming from the north, it ends up being present throughout the entire Peninsula during the colder months.
It eats fish and, in order to catch them, it dives and swims underwater. Its feathers are not waterproof, letting it submerge more easily. For this reason, they’re commonly seen perched on top of rocks or trees while spreading their wings in order to get dry.