Little Pied Cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleucos)

Today has been National Tree Day in Australia and also our Blipmeet day with Spikes2013 and her husband from New Zealand.

On our way to the blipmeet, we called into the Himeji Japanese Garden on South Terrace in Adelaide to see if maybe I could get a tree blip. Instead we saw all of these birds, so the birds became the focus for the blip.

After meeting Spikes and Piet at their hotel we brought them home for afternoon tea, and a blip-meet with our Siamese Raj. As many of you know, Spikes has 2 Siamese cats, so we had much in common. Along with lots of chat about NZ and future blipmeets there next February. We even managed to turn on some Aussie birds for Spikes in our backyard. It was a wonderful time together.

Back to my story from the Himeji Gardens where I found this Shag. The Little Pied Cormorant is a member of the Cormorant family of seabirds. Like other cormorants, it is often found perched on a waterside rock with its wings spread out after coming out of the water.

The Little Pied Cormorant is one of the most common of Australia's waterbirds, occurring on water bodies of almost any size. It is entirely black above and white below. It has a yellow hooked bill and a small crest and is also known as the Little Shag. It is a solitary feeder, normally diving in relatively shallow water.

The Little Pied Cormorant resembles the Pied Cormorant, but is easily distinguished by its smaller size and proportionately shorter bill. The Pied Cormorant also has an orange-yellow face patch.

The Little Pied Cormorant is a medium sized bird in my opinion, but is also classed as a small cormorant measuring 56-58 cm (22-23 in).

Yellow bill.