Shag (Little Shag)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Pelecaniformes
Family: Phalacrocoracidae
Genera: Phalacrocorax
Species: Melanoleucos
Scientific name: Phalacrocorax melanoleucos
Common name: Little Pied Shag, Little Shag, Kawaupaka, Little pied cormorant.
The Little shag is a common waterbird, found around the coasts, islands, estuaries, and inland waters of New Zealand, Malaysia, Australia, New Guinea and Indonesia, and around the islands of the south-western Pacific and the sub-Antarctic.
It is a small short-billed cormorant which varies in colour from all black to pied (black and white) with a short stumpy yellow bill and small crest, The mostly black white-throated form predominates in New Zealand.
The tail is longer than the Black shag.
A Little Shag drying its plumage after diving. It has it has no oil glands and hence the feathers get wet so there is no buoyancy and it can submerge easier.
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