Trivia question for Nov-24-2011

Carter is up and both he and his sister want to start off by saying Happy Thanksgiving to all our US friends.  Todays bird is unique in several ways.  Let’s see how good Carter did with his trivia on this bird.  These birds pursue fish underwater at high speeds, following their every twist and turn.  These sociable species fishes, roots and breeds in groups – often with other waterbirds.

These birds breed mainly on coasts, nesting on cliffs or in trees (which are eventually killed by the droppings), but also increasingly inland. 3-4 eggs are laid in a nest of seaweed or twigs. They can dive to considerable depths, but often feeds in shallow water. It frequently brings prey to the surface. A wide variety of fish are taken: they are often noticed eating eels, but this may reflect the considerable time taken to subdue an eel and position it for swallowing, rather than any dominance of eels in the diet. In British waters, dive times of 20–30 seconds are common, with a recovery time on the surface around a third of the dive time.

So here are Carter’s questions:  Tell us what this bird is called and tell us how these birds work together with Dalmatian Pelicans to fish?  Also, tell us how these birds have been trained by humans to catch fish for their masters in China?

Good Luck 😉

Answer:

Congratulations goes out to William Powell from Ludington, Michigan for being the first with the correct answer. The cool bird we featured is the Great Cormorant. The Great Cormorant, known as the Great Black Cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the Black Cormorant in Australia and the Black Shag further south in New Zealand, is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It breeds in much of the Old World and the Atlantic coast of North America. The European Shag or Common Shag is also a species of cormorant. It breeds around the rocky coasts of western and southern Europe, southwest Asia and north Africa, mainly wintering in its breeding range except for northernmost birds. In Britain this seabird is usually referred to as simply the Shag.

These birds are known to fish in corporation with the Dalmatian Pelicans in northern Greece.  The pelican helps the cormorant fish by blocking out the sun’s glare with its shadow.  in return, it picks off the fish that flee to the surface to escape the cormorant.  The ancient practice of training cormorants to ‘fish’ for their masters continues today in China.  A collar around the birds throat prevents it from swallowing fish it captures; the fish are retrieved when it surfaces beside the fishing boat.  Here is more on these interesting birds: Great Black Cormorant

Thanks for playing along 😉