Reed cormorant indaba

These reed cormorants or long-tailed cormorants, scientifically known as Microcarbo africanus, gather for roosting and important social events in their favourite surroundings: reeds, rocks or trees near water. Whether juveniles have speaking or voting rights at such meetings is not clear, their Constitution as unknown to the populace as Constitutions among humans. Reed cormorants may perch for long periods on rocks or a shoreline, swim but rarely dive.

When they fish, serious business, they operate alone. Seen here at Mjejane, they may be found anywhere in South Africa and in most of Africa south of the Sahara.

Reed cormorants eat fish and amphibians, crustaceans and insects. The adult bird is dark coloured, black with greenish gloss in the breeding season. The immature bird is off-white below. The reed cormorant is smaller than the whitebreasted cormorant. Mostly silent, there may be bleating talk when roosting, or cackling and hissing around the nest.

The nest is a sticks and reed platform of 25 cm in diameter on a branch, cliff or among reeds. These cormorants are not particular about the height of the nest. They nest in colonies, nests sometimes touching. It takes a breeding pair a week to build their nest. From two to six pale blue or green eggs are laid and hatched within 24 days by both sexes. The chicks leave the nest after about another 24 days (Maclean, 1993; Wikipedia).