Rough-faced Shag
| Rough-faced Shag | |
|---|---|
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| Australian Pied Cormorant (on the left) and Rough-faced Shag (on the right) (Illustration by John Gerrard Keulemans) |
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| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Pelecaniformes |
| Family: | Phalacrocoracidae |
| Genus: | Phalacrocorax |
| Species: | P. carunculatus |
| Binomial name | |
| Phalacrocorax carunculatus Gmelin, 1789 |
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The Rough-faced Shag (Phalacrocorax carunculatus), also known as New Zealand King Shag or King Shag, is a rare bird endemic to New Zealand.
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[edit] Description
It is a large (76 cm long, 2.5 kg in weight) black and white cormorant with pink feet. White patches on the wings appear as bars when the wings are folded. Yellow-orange swellings (caruncules) are found above the base of the bill. The grey gular pouch is reddish in the breeding season. A blue eye-ring indicates its kinship with the other blue-eyed shags. They can be seen from the Cook Strait Ferry in Queen Charlotte Sound opposite the beginning of the Troy Channel.[citation needed]
[edit] Habitat
Rough-faced Shags live in the coastal waters of the Marlborough Sounds where they are known to breed only on rocky islets at four small sites.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheets: Duffers Reef. Sentinel Rock. Trio Islands. White Rocks. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2012-02-03.
- BirdLife International (2004). Phalacrocorax carunculatus. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 2 December 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is vulnerable
