The little pied cormorant, little shag or little pied shag (Microcarbo melanoleucos) () is a common species of Australasian waterbird, found around the coasts, islands, estuaries, and inland waters of Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Timor-Leste and Indonesia, and around the islands of the south-western Pacific and the subantarctic. It is a small short-billed cormorant usually black above and white below with a yellow bill and small crest, although a mostly black white-throated form predominates in New Zealand. Three subspecies are recognised. Until recently, most authorities referred to this species as Phalacrocorax melanoleucos.

Taxonomy

The species is known as the little pied cormorant in Australia, and as the little shag or by the Māori name of kawaupaka in New Zealand. The term white-throated shag is also reserved for the melanistic form there.

The little pied cormorant was originally described by French naturalist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1817. In 1931, American ornithologist James Lee Peters was the first to consider this in a separate genus along with the pygmy cormorant (M. pygmaeus), little cormorant (M. niger), and the long-tailed cormorant (M. africanus). Since then, molecular work by Sibley and Ahlquist showed the little pied and long-tailed cormorants formed a group which had diverged early on from other cormorants. This group of "micro-cormorants" assumed the genus name Microcarbo, initially described by French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1855. The generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek "small", and Latin "black". However, most older authorities refer to this species as Phalacrocorax melanoleucus.

In the now-extinct Waray language spoken along the Adelaide River in North Arnhem Land, the species was known as mawa.

Three subspecies are commonly recognised:

  • M. m. melanoleucos. Resident throughout the species range except in New Zealand and the sub-Antarctic islands
  • M. m. brevicauda Mayr 1931. Endemic to Rennell Island, in the Solomon Islands
  • M. m. brevirostris Gould 1837 (little shag). Resident throughout New Zealand and regularly seen on sub-Antarctic islands; has bred on Campbell Island. Some authorities treat this form as a distinct species, P. brevirostris.

Description

thumb|left|Wing drying pose

The little pied cormorant is a small cormorant measuring with a shorter bill and longer tail than the little black cormorant; it has a small black crest. It is found in two morphs in New Zealand. Subspecies melanoleucos and brevicauda are found only in a pied morph, black (with a slight green tinge) above and white beneath. This is also found in subspecies brevirostris, but in this form the melanistic morph is much more common. In this form the entire plumage is black with a greenish tinge except for the sides of the head, chin, throat and upper neck; the bill is yellow with black on top. Intermediate forms are also found. The pied form is rare in New Zealand, and is most common there in Northland, where it makes up one in every four birds or so.

Distribution and habitat

The species ranges across New Zealand, from Stewart Island to Northland, The nest is a platform built of branches and sticks, often still green with leaves in the forks of trees, usually eucalypts that are standing in water. Nests are often located near other waterbirds such as other cormorants, herons, ibises or spoonbills. Four or five pale blue oval eggs measuring 46 x 31 mm are laid. The eggs are covered with a thin layer of lime, giving them a matte white coated appearance. They become increasingly stained with faeces, as does the nest, over the duration of the breeding season.

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File:LittlePiedCormorant444.jpg|Close-up of the head

File:Black-bellied Little Pied Cormorant.jpg|Melanistic morph, New Zealand

File:Little Pied Cormorant - melbourne zoo.jpg|An individual with a dark bill, atypical of little pied cormorants

File:Flock of Little Pied Cormorants.jpg|Roosting, Tasmania

Little pied cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleucos melanoleucos) immature Kakadu.jpg|Immature

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References

  • Johnsgaard, P. A. (1993). Cormorants, Darters and Pelicans of the World. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.