Pelagic Cormorant

Taxobox
name = Pelagic Cormorant

---

status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Pelecaniformes
familia = Phalacrocoracidae
genus = "Phalacrocorax"
species = "P. pelagicus"
binomial = "Phalacrocorax pelagicus"
binomial_authority = Pallas, 1811
subdivision_ranks = Subspecies
subdivision =
* "P. p. pelagicus" Taxobox_authority | author = Pallas | date = 1811 Northern Pelagic Cormorant
* "P. p. resplendens" Taxobox_authority | author = Audubon | date = 1838 Southern Pelagic Cormorant
synonyms ="Phalacrocorax kenyoni"
Taxobox_authority | author = Siegel-Causey | date = 1991

The Pelagic Cormorant ("Phalacrocorax pelagicus" ["Phalacrocorax", Latinized Ancient Greek for cormorants (literally "bald raven"). "pelagicus", Ancient Greek for "of the open seas" (cf. pelagic).] ),also known as Baird's Cormorant, is a small (25"-29", 64-74 cm long) member of the cormorant family found on the coasts of the northern Pacific.

It is a black-bodied seabird with a metallic gloss. Its facial skin is a vivid magenta.

It is distinguished from other cormorants in the region by its small head and much thinner bill. Also, it is the only cormorant in its region that has conspicuous white patches on its flanks during the breeding season.

This bird feeds by diving into wild seas and surf near boulders. It can dive as deep as 100 feet (30 m) in coastal waters to feed on the sea bottom.

The Pelagic Cormorant's USA range includes the Pacific shore from Alaska to the Baja peninsula in Mexico.

Kenyon's Shag or Amchitka Cormorant ("Phalacrocorax kenyoni" ["kenyoni", dedicated to Karl W. Kenyon who collected the type specimen in 1959.] )is a supposed species, closely related to the Pelagic Cormorant, which was described from the bones of two individuals snared in fishing nets at Amchitka Island in the late 1950s (Siegel-Causey, 1991). Later, some bones from prehistoric middens were also attributed to this taxon. As distinctive cormorants were never seen alive in recent years on Amchitka, it was conjectured by some that Kenyon's Shag had gone extinct in the 1960s-1970s (marine pollution and overfishing would be possible reasons).

However, a subsequent analysis of a larger number of comparison specimens of the Pelagic Cormorant (Rohwer "et al.", 2000) determined that the bones were attributable to small females of the latter species. The researchers also found that contrary to what was generally assumed, Pelagic Cormorants from Amchitka were generally small birds, as opposed to Eastern Aleutian individuals which are usually very large. If the Amchitka/Western Aleutian population were to be considered a distinct subspecies (which would require molecular analyses since the differences in morphology are not large and there is much variation between individuals), the name "kenyoni" would apply. The largest birds were formerly called "P. pelagicus robustus" but are not considered distinct today; since there appear to be 3 recognizable size groups in the northern subspecies alone, more research is clearly warranted (Hobson, 1997).

References

* Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern

* Hobson, K. A. (1997): Pelagic Cormorant ("Phalacrocorax pelagicus"). "In:" Poole, A. & Gill, F. (eds.): "The Birds of North America" 282. The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA & The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. Online version, retrieved 2006-OCT-10.

* Rohwer, Sievert; Filardi, Christopher E.; Bostwick, Kimberly S. & Peterson, A. Townsend (2000): A critical evaluation of Kenyon's Shag ("Phalacrocorax" ["Stictocarbo"] "kenyoni"). "Auk" 117(2): 308–320. [http://www.cumv.cornell.edu/pdf/Rohwer_et_al_2000.pdf PDF fulltext]

* Siegel-Causey, Douglas (1991): Systematics and biogeography of North Pacific shags, with a description of a new species. "Occasional Papers of the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History" 140: 1–17.

* Siegel-Causey, Douglas; Lefevre, C. & Savinetskii, A. B. (1991): Historical diversity of cormorants and shags from Amchitka Island, Alaska. "Condor" 93(4): 840–852. [http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v093n04/p0840-p0852.pdf PDF fulltext]

Footnotes