The little pied cormorant, little shag or kawaupaka is a common Australasian waterbird, found around the coasts, islands, estuaries, and inland waters of Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Timor-Leste, and Indonesia, and around the islands of the south-western Pacific and the subantarctic. It is a small short-billed cormorant usually black above and white below with a yellow bill and small crest, although a mostly black white-throated form predominates in New Zealand. Three subspecies are recognised. Until recently most authorities referred to this species as Phalacrocorax melanoleucos.
Image: Microcarbo melanoleucos Boat Harbour
Image: Little pied cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleucos) Freycinet
Image: Little Pied Coromant Range
Wing drying pose
Microcarbo is a genus of fish-eating birds, known as cormorants, of the family Phalacrocoracidae. The genus was formerly subsumed within Phalacrocorax.
Microcarbo
Image: Crowned Cormorant, Phalacrocorax coronatus
Image: Little cormorant (Microcarbo niger) 20070322
Image: Microcarbo melanoleucos Austins Ferry 3