Red-faced Cormorant

The Red-faced Cormorant, Red-faced Shag or Violet Shag, Phalacrocorax urile, is a species of cormorant that is found in the far north of the Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, from the eastern tip of Hokkaidō in Japan, via the Kuril Islands, the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands to the Alaska Peninsula and Gulf of Alaska. The Red-faced Cormorant is closely related to the Pelagic Cormorant P. pelagicus, which has a simila... more

The Red-faced Cormorant, Red-faced Shag or Violet Shag, Phalacrocorax urile, is a species of cormorant that is found in the far north of the Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, from the eastern tip of Hokkaidō in Japan, via the Kuril Islands, the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands to the Alaska Peninsula and Gulf of Alaska. The Red-faced Cormorant is closely related to the Pelagic Cormorant P. pelagicus, which has a similar range, and like the Pelagic Cormorant is placed by some authors (e.g. Johnsgaard) in a genus Leucocarbo. Where it nests alongside the Pelagic Cormorant, the Red-faced Cormorant generally breeds the more successfully of the two species, and it is currently increasing in numbers, at least in the easterly parts of its range. It is however listed as being of conservation concern, partly because relatively little is so far known about it. The adult bird has glossy plumage that is a deep greenish blue in colour, becoming purplish or bronze on the... less