Little cormorant

How it lives

Little cormorants fish alone or in loose groups, and roost together. They breed in colonies in trees, often beside herons and egrets, on a platform nest of sticks. The clutch is usually 2 to 6 eggs, and eggs hatch after about 15 to 21 days. In a Bangladesh colony the young left the nest 17 to 29 days after hatching. Breeding season depends on region: May to October in Bangladesh, July to September in Pakistan and northern India, November to February in southern India and December to May in Sri Lanka. In breeding plumage the bird is glossy black. Outside the breeding season it is browner, with a pale throat patch.

Where it goes

The little cormorant lives across the Indian subcontinent and east through mainland Southeast Asia to Java. It feeds and roosts on wetlands, mostly fresh water, from village ponds to large lakes, and sometimes uses tidal estuaries. The sources I opened describe no long-distance migration. Stray birds have been recorded in Ladakh, and it is not found in the Himalayas.

We only draw a journey on the map when scientists have tracked it or clearly documented it. For this animal we have not found one yet.

Populations

The estimated total population is 275,000 to 350,000 birds (BirdLife International, 2024, as listed on Wikipedia). I did not find a clear population trend in the sources I opened. A study around Delhi, India, says cormorants and their habitats are under threat there. It found that small village waterbodies are threatened by pollution and urbanisation, and that human disturbance cut short feeding bouts, mostly outside protected areas.