Socotra cormorant

How it lives

It is highly gregarious and gathers in large flocks all year, with roosts of up to 250,000 birds reported. It nests only on flat, low islands in the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, in dense colonies. A study at Siniya Island in the United Arab Emirates recorded laying between 13 September and 6 October (2011 to 2015), with an average of about 2.2 to 2.8 eggs per nest. Eggs took about 24 to 27 days to hatch, chicks hatched in November and fledged by late January. Timing may differ at other colonies.

Where it goes

Most birds stay in the Arabian Gulf, where the colonies form one interbreeding population. A smaller group breeds in the Arabian Sea off Oman and is genetically different. Outside the breeding season, birds disperse; in Kuwait they are uncommon visitors, mostly in summer, and a few reach the Red Sea coast.

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

Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List (BirdLife International listing, 2019), mainly because it breeds in few places and has declined fast. The global breeding population is about 110,000 pairs, about 86% of them in the Arabian Gulf, and about 10,000 pairs breed on the Arabian Sea coast of Oman. A 2026 genetics paper quotes a fall from 450,000 to 750,000 birds in 2000 to about 220,000 in 2018. Sources disagree on the biggest colony. Wikipedia reports 200,000 to 300,000 adults recorded at the Hawar Islands (Bahrain) in 1992 and about 30,000 pairs there (undated), while Kuwait Birds says the Gulf of Salwa in Saudi Arabia holds over half of the world population today. Threats named are coastal development, disturbance at nesting sites, oil and other marine pollution, introduced predators, egg collection and competition with fisheries.