Neotropic cormorant

How it lives

Neotropic cormorants nest in colonies, sometimes thousands of pairs strong, building stick platforms in trees and bushes or on rocky ground. Breeding can happen all year, with peaks that vary by place. A nest holds 1 to 6 eggs, which hatch after about 23 to 30 days, and the young are independent at about 12 weeks. They spend much of the day out of the water, resting with wings held open to dry. The oldest banded wild bird lived 12 years and 7 months.

Where it goes

Mostly resident. IUCN lists it as not a migrant, and some birds wander north in warmer months. It lives from the Gulf of Mexico and California coasts through Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean to southern South America. It uses fresh, brackish and salt water, from the sea coast to lakes in the Andes at up to about 4,900 m (16,000 ft).

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

IUCN (2018): Least Concern, with an increasing population of about 2 million individuals. In the United States, about 16,000 breeding birds were estimated in 2002, and numbers have been rising slowly after a sharp fall in Texas in the 1960s. The Cornell Lab notes that the world population has not been studied in detail. Two subspecies are recognised: mexicanum from Nicaragua northwards and brasilianum from Costa Rica to Tierra del Fuego. Some birds are shot at fish and shrimp farms and nesting colonies are sometimes disturbed, but IUCN says the effect on the species appears very limited.