Pygmy Cormorant
Pygmy Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pygmeus )
The Pygmy Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pygmeus ) belongs to the family of Cormorants ( Phalacrocoracidae ).
Appearance
The Pygmy Cormorant is 45 to 60 cm long, 700 g in weight and reaches a wingspan of about 80 cm. It is dark in color with dark brown head.
Diet and lifestyle
The Pygmy Cormorant feeds mainly on fish they hunt specifically with diving attacks. When swimming, always look Pygmy back down to discover a fish. Underwater they move on with paddle movements of their feet. In Auftauchpausen only their long necks above the surface appear. In flight, Pygmy Cormorants move with elongated necks and steadily beating wings.
Reproduction
It breeds in trees or in the reeds and forms colonies that can consist of several tens or hundreds of birds. Their eggs are greenish white and have a size of 60x36 mm. The young birds leave the nest even before they gain the ability to fly around the age of ten weeks.
Distribution and habitat
The range of the pygmy cormorant stretches from the east of the Mediterranean through Asia Minor to Uzbekistan. In North Africa, where the species also originally occurred, it's gone against.
The Pygmy Cormorant is found mainly in South Eastern Europe, it is all year round often found in the lagoon such as Karavasta on the entire Danube Delta and in some fish-filled lakes. It requires inland waters with dense bank vegetation such as reeds or riparian forest and can be found on lakes, Altwasserarmen, in swamps and on flat steppe lakes. In winter the birds on the seashore are seen and can occur in large squads. Pygmy Cormorants prefer still waters and mild climate.
Inventory and inventory development
The European breeding bird population is estimated at 28000-38000 breeding pairs. The distribution area is located in Romania and Aserbeitschan. Other large populations can be found in the European part of Russia, Greece and Turkey. Central Europe lies on the northwestern edge of the distribution area. The Pygmy Cormorant has settled here in recent years again in Hungary, there were also new settlements in Slovakia. The European winter population is estimated at 63000-115000 individuals.
In Hungary in 2001 bred back more than 200 breeding pairs. Currently, the pygmy cormorant spreads particularly along the Tisza and the Danube back to the north. It benefits may be of the eutrophication of waters and a consequent increase in the whitefish stocks. In Bulgaria there were in 2000, the largest winter gathering of this kind with 11,905 individuals, and there are now also in Bulgaria again 250 breeding pairs. In Austria first brood settlements were made in 2003.