Long-tailed Cormorant

Phalacrocorax africanus

Other Pics: Immature Long-tailed Cormorant

Other Names

  Reed Cormorant   Cormoran africain   Riedscharbe   Cormorán Africano   Långstjärtad skarv   Afrikaanse Dwergaalscholver   Cormorano africano

World: Africa South of the Sahara and Madagascar.

Kenya: Throughout Kenya wherever suitable conditions exist. In the North mainly restricted to the area around Lake Turkana.

Much smaller than the Great Cormorant Kenya's only other cormorant. The Long-tailed cormorant mostly prefers inland waters; slow-flowing rivers lakes swamps and ponds but is also found along coasts. Lakes Victoria and Nakuru and the swamps at Amboseli are among the easier places to find it. It's usually found alone or in small groups. Nests in trees or on the ground. Its diet is mainly fish but will also take frogs, crustaceans and aquatic insects.