Great ( carbo) movements

The Great Cormorant breeds locally in southeastern, central and northern . It also breeds in northwestern , in eastern and southern Africa, in , in and . There are several subspecies, of which two are found in Europe. Ph. c. carbo breeds in the north of Europe with Ph. c. sinensis, which has increased its breeding range since 1980, breeding in central and southern Europe. The Cormorant breeds in colonies and is migratory, partially migratory or dispersive. The shows a typical chain migration pattern in northern Europe, where northern populations (Ph. c. carbo) winter in the breeding area of more southern populations (Ph. c. sinensis) that have moved further south.

Figure 1. Map depicting the movements Large numbers of recoveries are available from of Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax ringed in Britain & Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and the carbo) based on published information Netherlands. Recoveries reported during the winter and ring recoveries in the EURING Data period (December – January) are widely spread in Bank. western and southern Europe as well as in North Africa, the Middle East, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. These winter recoveries occur both inland and on the coast with concentrations in Tunisia-western Algeria, France, Britain & Ireland, central Europe and Denmark. The return migration starts in January-February and by April most birds have left the Mediterranean area. breeding in Britain & Ireland normally move short distances, but some birds move south to Portugal and eastward to Italy and . Birds breeding in Norway and at the Kola Peninsula in Russia move S- SW to the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, with eastern birds regularly passing over land to reach the Baltic Sea. Cormorants breeding in the Baltic area move to a great extent S-SSW and many winter in central Europe while some continue to North Africa, especially Tunisia and Algeria. A few also remain in the Baltic Sea in winter, where the majority of the wintering birds are of Arctic origin. Cormorants from the Baltic Sea are rarely found east of 25oE. Cormorants breeding in the Black Sea mainly stay in this area during mild winters, but can also move south to the Middle East. Breeders in the Volga Delta largely remain in the southern part of the Caspian Sea, but some continue further south to the Persian Golf. After breeding Cormorants start to disperse from the colonies in June-July. Migration continues throughout the autumn and a large influx to the Mediterranean area takes place in October.

Table 1. Summary of the movements of Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) from the literature based on published information and ring recoveries in the EURING Data Bank.

Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo

Distribution: Subspecies sinensis breeding in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Africa. Subspecies carbo along the coasts of North Atlantic between easternmost , Norway and northwest France.

Moult: Postnuptial moult of flight during July to December; juveniles and immatures with other patterns. No obvious moult migration.

Population Autumn Migration Wintering/Non-breeding Grounds Reference or part of Spring Migration population Direction/via during location during via during

subspecies Ph.c. carbo UK, Ireland coasts of UK and Ireland, along Atlantic coast 1, 3 from Netherlands to Portugal, few also farther north and inlands eastward to Italy and eastern Germany.

Norway, Kola along Coast and over the August-October Baltic Sea, North Sea April - May 1, 9 peninsula Scandinavian mainland

Karelia Finland Baltic Sea 15

subspecies Ph.c. sinensis

Netherlands France partial migrant; France, western Mediterranean 1.2

Western and Oct., Nov. Western and central Europe, Mediterranean to Jan. to March 1, 3,5, 7 central Europe North Africa; females and juvenile birds move farther south than adult males. Baltic in SSW to SE directions Central European mainland 1 Denmark Central and western Europe Central and southwestern Europe from more or 5 (Germany, France, Portugal to and ; less same eastwards to western Poland) southwards to Morocco and Tunisia; not east of as in 24° E longitude autumn Sweden Central and southwestern Europe from 4 Portugal to Czech republic and Greece; southwards to Morocco and Tunisia; not east of 28° E longitude. Few birds stay in southern and western Sweden.

Wolga delta western and southern parts of Caspian Sea 15 southwards to Persian Gulf References consulted in drawing up the movement summary tables. Number in tables indicate which reference was used in drawing up each line of data in the tables.

Number in Tables Reference 1 Bauer, H.G., Bezzel, E. & Fiedler, W. (eds.) 2005. Kompendium der Vögel Mitteleuropas. Aula- Verlag, Wiebelsheim. 2 Speek, B.J. & Speek, G. (1984). Thieme’s vogeltrekatlas. Thieme, Zutphen. 3 Wernham, C., Toms, M., Marchant, J., Clark, J., Siriwardena, G. & Baillie, S. (eds.) 2002. The Migration Atlas: movements of the birds of Britain and Ireland. T. & A.D. Poyser, London. 4 Fransson, T. & Pettersson, J. (2001): Svensk ringmärkningsatlas. Vol. 1. Stockholm. Including preliminary printouts for volume 2 (unpublished, 2006) 5 Bønløkke, J., Madsen, J.J., Thorup, K., Pedersen, K.T., Bjerrum, M. & Rahbek, C. in press. Dansk Trækfugleatlas. The Danish Migration Atlas (to be published spring 2006). Rhodos International Science & Art Publishers Ltd., Holtegaard, Humlebæk, Denmark. 6 Unpublished printout of recovery maps from the Helsinki Bird Ringing Scheme. 7 Roggeman, W., Huisseune, D., Vangeluwe, D., Vandenbulck, P. & Vandousselare, P. 1995. Belgian Ringing Scheme Databank. Gaviidae to Anatidae. Studiedocumenten van het K.B.I.N., Brussels. 8 Scott, D.A. & Rose, P.M. 1996. Atlas of Anatidae Populations in Africa and Western Eurasia. Wetlands International Publication 41. 9 Bakken, V., Runde, O. & Tjørve, E. 2003. Norsk Ringmerkings Atlas. Lommer - Alkefugler. Ringmerkingssentralen, Stavanger Museum. 10 Bianki, V.V. & Dobrynina, I.N. 1997. Anseriformes, Dabbling ducks. In: Pavlov, D.S. (series ed.): Migrations of Birds of eastern Europe and Northern Asia. Nauka, Moscow. 11 Veen J., Yurlov, A.K., Delany S.N., Mihantiev, A.I., Selivanova, M.A. & Boere, G.C. 2005. An atlas of movements of Southwest Siberian waterbirds. Wetlands International, Wageningen, The Netherlands. 12 Recovery maps from the Italian Bird Ringing Scheme 13 Czech Duck Ringing project. URL: http://www.mujweb.cz/veda/aythya/menu/records.htm 14 McClure (1998): Migration and Survival of the Birds of Asia. White Lotus Press, Thailand. 15 Kishchinskii, A.A. (1978): Gaviiformes to Ciconiiformes. Migrations of birds of eastern Europe and Northern Asia. Nauka, Moscow. 16 Kishchinskii, A.A. (1982): Falconiformes to Gruiformes. Migrations of birds of eastern Europe and Northern Asia. Nauka, Moscow. 17 Svazasn S., W. Meissner, V, Serebryakov, A. Kozulin & G. Grishanov (2001): Changes of wintering sites of waterfowl in central and eastern Europe. OMPO, Vilnius.

SF - 278 SV – 1,831

NO - 60

ET - 20 DK – 7,072 LV - 9 NL – 1,351

GB – 5,920 LI - 4

ER – 1,734 PL - 316

BL - 55 DE – 442

FR - 59 UK - 3

HG - 35 HE - 290 AU - 1

GR - 1

Figure 2. Country of ringing and numbers of recoveries of birds featured in maps of finding locations – Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo).