Pelagic Cormorant Urile pelagicus Scientific name definitions
Sign in to see your badges
Species names in all available languages
Language | Common name |
---|---|
Bulgarian | Пелагичен корморан |
Catalan | corb marí pelàgic |
Chinese | 海鸕鷀 |
Chinese (SIM) | 海鸬鹚 |
Czech | kormorán tichomořský |
Dutch | Pelagische Aalscholver |
English | Pelagic Cormorant |
English (United States) | Pelagic Cormorant |
Finnish | ulappamerimetso |
French | Cormoran pélagique |
French (France) | Cormoran pélagique |
German | Meerscharbe |
Icelandic | Hafskarfur |
Japanese | ヒメウ |
Korean | 쇠가마우지 |
Norwegian | beringskarv |
Polish | kormoran krasnolicy |
Russian | Берингов баклан |
Serbian | Američki morski vranac |
Slovak | kormorán morský |
Spanish | Cormorán Pelágico |
Spanish (Mexico) | Cormorán Pelágico |
Spanish (Spain) | Cormorán pelágico |
Swedish | pelagskarv |
Turkish | Pelajik Karabatak |
Ukrainian | Баклан берингійський |
Urile pelagicus (Pallas, 1811)
Definitions
- URILE
- urile
- pelagica / pelagicus
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Introduction
The Pelagic Cormorant, the smallest and most widely distributed of six cormorant species inhabiting the North Pacific, ranges from the Arctic waters of the Chukchi and Bering seas south through temperate waters along the North American Pacific Coast to Baja California and along the Asian coast to southern China. It is among the least gregarious or social of the cormorants, nesting on steep cliffs along rocky and exposed shorelines, either in loose colonies or far from nearest neighbors.
Although the Pelagic Cormorant is exclusively marine in habits, its name is misleading, since it prefers inshore areas. This species is a component of littoral communities and feeds primarily on solitary fish and invertebrates on the bottom. These and other aspects of its morphology and behavior qualify it as a member of the shag subfamily Leucocarboninae, according to Siegel-Causey (1).
The North American population totals about 130,000 birds, the majority of which occur in Alaska. Local populations often fluctuate considerably because of movement among breeding sites. During breeding, Pelagic Cormorants show a rich repertoire of behavioral displays. The species is also conspicuous on diurnal roosts, where it may spend considerable time drying its plumage. Like all other cormorants, it is sensitive to disturbance at colonies and vulnerable to oil spills, gill-net entanglement, and contamination of marine food webs.
In part because of its more solitary habits, this species is still relatively poorly studied compared to other Pelecaniformes. However, important long-term population and dietary studies have been conducted at the Farallon Is., CA (2), and breeding behavior and diet has been studied at Mandarte I., British Columbia (3, 4, 5; see also 6). Other investigations have focused on the dynamic nature of colony-site selection and attendance (7) and the use of diurnal roost sites (Hobson and Sealy 8, 9).