cormorant, cormorants

About the name of cormorant: There is no consistent distinction between cormorants and shags. The names "cormorant" and "shag" were originally the common names of the two species of the family found in Great Britain, Phalacrocorax carbo (now referred to by ornithologists as the Great Cormorant) and P. aristotelis (the Common Shag). "Shag" refers to the bird's crest, which the British forms of the Great Cormorant lack. As other species were discovered by English-speaking sailors and explorers elsewhere in the world, some were called cormorants and some shags, depending on whether they had crests or not. Sometimes the same species is called a cormorant in one part of the world and a shag in another, e.g., the Great Cormorant is called the Black Shag in New Zealand (the birds found in Australasia have a crest that is absent in European members of the species). Van Tets (1976) proposed to divide the family into two genera and attach the name "Cormorant" to one and "Shag" to the other, but this flies in the face of common usage and has not been widely adopted.

Direction Drive 182.94 km or 3.05 hrs north west from last photo
Location Jinja, East Africa, Uganda, Africa
Info F 5.6 1/2000 ISO 1600 with Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Country Uganda State East Africa
City Jinja Near River Nile
Continent Africa Day Jinja
Activity Samuka Island Boat Ride Tour GAP (Great Adventure People)
Date 2007:09:23 10:24:24 Make Canon
Model Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi Width 1442
Height 1923 Flash Off, Did not fire
Focal 300.0 mm Exposure 1/2000
F Number 5.6 ISO 1600
White Bal. Auto Program Aperture-priority AE
Compensation 0 Hyperfocal 865.65 m
Latitude 0.422741666666667 Longitude 33.1949777777778
Altitude 72.28787225 m File Size 2.1 MB
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