Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Socotra Cormorant, Sokotrakormoran (Sokotrascharbe), Phalacrocorax nigrogularis


While going through my archives, looking for old shots from 2007 to make a post on my other blog about the changes in this region, I was surprised to find a Cormorant that didn’t look quite like a usual Cormorant. So I asked my friends at Birdforum, et voila, my archives produced a Juvenile Socotra Cormorant.
The Socotra Cormorant is an uncommon dispenser in and around Kuwait, but he has bred here. His status is considered Vulnerable by Birdlife International (threatened by others), due to the fact that they only breed on 9 locations in the Gulf area. 13 breeding Sites have disappeared due to us humans and our greed for more coastal regions to live in.
I sure hope to get to see one of these Beauties again (and be able to take a better photo ;) ).
This species is approx 80cm tall with a Wingspan of 120-150cm, blackish, with a bronze sheen on its back and wings. He lacks the white face patch and the white throat that the Great Cormorant sports.

From Birds Kuwait 2007

Some beautiful photos by Abdul Rahman Al-Sirhan from Kuwait, some information and breeding range by Birdlife and a wonderful report about the colony in Bahrain which makes me want to hop on the next plane over there (click on the link in the top right corner of their site to get to the next page of the report)  :)