King Cormorant on Saunders Island, Falklands
The imperial shag (Phalacrocorax atriceps) is a black and white cormorant native to southern South America, primarily in rocky coastal regions, but locally also at large inland lakes. It is sometimes placed in the genus Leucocarbo. It is also known as the blue-eyed shag, blue-eyed cormorant and by many other names, and is one of a larger group of cormorants called blue-eyed shags. The taxonomy is very complex, and several former subspecies are often considered separate species. The imperial shag has a total length of 70–79 cm (28–31 in) and weighs – kg (– lb), with males averaging larger than females. It is endowed with glossy black feathers covering most of its body, with a white belly and neck. It possesses a distinctive ring of blue skin around its eyes, an orange-yellow nasal knob, pinkish legs and feet, and an erectile black crest. During the non-breeding season, adults lack the crest, have a duller facial area, and less/no white to the back/wings. It has a serrated bill used for catching fish. The group varies primarily in the amount of white on the cheeks/ear-coverts, wing-coverts and back. Most taxa have white cheeks and ear-coverts, but these are black in albiventer, purpurascens and melanogenis. Chicks are uniform brownish, and immatures are brownish and white (instead of black and white), have dull facial skin, and lack the orange-yellow nasal knob and blue eye-ring.
Size: 4377px × 2918px
Location: Saunders Island Falklands
Photo credit: © Philip Jones / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: _d, albiventer, atlantic, atriceps, birds, colony, cormorant, falkland, falklands, horizontal, imperial, island, islands, king, land, malvinas, nesting, phalacrocorax, rookery, saunder, shag, south
