Little Pied Cormorant

The Little Pied Cormorant is one of the most common Australia's waterbirds, occurring on water bodies of almost any size. Its entirely black above and white below. The face is dusky and, in adult birds, the white on the underside extends to above the eye. Immature birds resemble the adults except there is no white above the eye.

The Little Pied Cormorant is found throughout Australia and is at home in either fresh or salt water. It's often seen in large flocks on open waterways and on the coast, especially where large numbers of fish are present. On inland streams and dams, however is often solitary. 

The Little Pied Cormorant mixes readily with the similar sized Black Cormorant which is also described in this blog.

It feeds on a wide variety of aquatic animals, from insects to fish. On inland they turn to their most favorite food, Yabbies (freshwater crayfish). These are caught by deep underwater dives with both feeds kicking outward in unison. Other crustaceans are also taken, with shrimps being a large part of their diet in winter months.

Little Pied Cormorant on first picture were seen at Herdsmann lake in Perth. For others, me and Monica rented a canoe at Moore river in Guilderton. We saw the birds on the other side of the river, so Monica was sailing trying to approach the boat much closer was possible and I was trying to take the best photos. It was quite cold and windy day and type of boat we were using was for competitions, so a lot of water came in and we were totally wet.                  

Photos taken: 1 Herdsmann Lake 11.05.2013/ 3,4,5,6 Moore river Guilderton 2.6.2013   

Mali lisasti Kormoran je ena najpogostejših Avstralskih vodnih ptic. Po hrbtnem delu telesa ima perje črno, na trebušnem delu pa belo. Koža na obrazu je črne in bele barve na notranji strani, ki se pri odraslih pticah podaljša vse do okrog oči. Mlade ptice so povsem enake, razen bele kože okrog oči.

Malega lisastega Kormorana najdemo v celotni Avstraliji, doma je tako v sladkih kot v slanih vodah. Pogosto ga vidimo v večjih jatah na odprtih vodnih poteh in na obali, predvsem kjer je prisotno veliko rib, na manjših tokovih in mlakah pa je večinoma sam. Rad se druži z Črnim Kormoranom, ki je podobne velikosti in je prav tako opisan v tem blogu.

Hrani se z različnimi vodnimi živalmi, od insektov do rib, v celinskih vodah pa izbere njemu najljubšo hrano, tako imenovano ribo Yabbie (crayfish-jelševec???) Le te ulovi tako, da se z sonožnim odganjanjem potopi globoko pod vodo. Hrani se tudi z raki in kozicami, ki so v zimskem času del njegove diete.

Prva fotografija je bila posneta pri Hardsmanovem jezeru blizu Pertha, za ostale štiri pa sva z Moniko najela čoln ob reki Moore v Guildertonu. Ptice sva namreč videla na drugi strani reke. Monika je veslala in poskušala približati čoln čim bližje ja pa sem fotografiral.

Bil je nenavadno hladen dan in kanu, ki sva ga imela je bil tekmovalnega tipa. V notranjosti se je nabirala voda in oba sva imela riti in noge več kot eno uro v vodi.