Little Pied Cormorant
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| Little Pied Cormorant | ||||||||||||||
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| Phalacrocorax melanoleucos (Vieillot, 1817) |
The Little Pied Cormorant, Little Shag or Kawaupaka (Phalacrocorax melanoleucos) is a common Australasian waterbird, found around the coasts, islands, estuaries, and inland waters of Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and around the islands of the south-western Pacific and the sub-Antarctic.
The Little Pied Cormorant is a benthic feeder, i.e. it finds its prey on the sea floor. It feeds in relatively shallow water, often near the shore. Dive times are short, around 15 to 20 seconds, with recovery times on the surface of 5 to 10 seconds unless prey are being swallowed. In New Zealand waters it mostly eats the local flounder and other small flatfish. These are brought to the surface to be swallowed: the bird will sometimes put a fish down on the surface of the water in order to re-orient it and swallow it head first. Because of this habit, they suffer some kleptoparasitism from Red-billed Gulls.