The Great Cormorant Lives Near the Water Worldwide

by Encheng Zhuo, age 10

One kind of seabird is the Great Cormorant, which lives in many places of the world including Europe, Asia, and Africa. These birds can also live across the North America.

The Great Cormorant is a large black bird with a long tail and a yellow patch on its throat. During the breeding season, it has white patches on its thighs. They can range in size and weigh between 3.3 to 11.7 pounds.

Great Cormorants eat fish such as wrasses, sand smelt, and common soles. They dive to catch their fish. Their dives usually last about 28 seconds under water. Based on the weather, the size of the fish they catch changes, they can catch small fish in the summer and larger fish in the cold winter.

The food they catch comes from the sea, freshwater lakes and rivers. When the Great Cormorant finds a place to build its nest, it begins to mate. The female usually lays around three to five eggs, and their eggs are 2.5 by 1.6 inches in size. In the winter the Great Cormorant flies to the south for warmer weather, and returns in Spring to its original nest.

These birds are fascinating, catching their prey under water and flying hundred of miles each winter to for better climates. The Great Cormorant is an important animal to the ecosystem and continued protection of its habitat is needed to allow for its survival into the future.