Japanese Cormorant

Phalacrocorax capillatus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1850)

Japanese Cormorant, Phalacrocorax capillatus, is a cormorant of coastal East Asia, breeding from the Russian Far East and Sakhalin through the Kuril Islands and Japan to the Korean Peninsula and north-east China. Outside the breeding season it reaches the Izu Islands, the northern Ryukyu Islands, coastal eastern China and Taiwan. It belongs to the family Phalacrocoracidae and was described by Temminck and Schlegel in 1850. It is one of the cormorants used in Japan for traditional fishing, where masters on the Nagara River employ it to catch ayu.

Order

Suliformes

Family

Phalacrocoracidae — Cormorants, Shags

Breeding range

Palearctic: ne Asian coasts: se Russia including Sakhalin, s Kuril Is., Hokkaido to Kyushu (n to s Japan), Korean Pen. and ne China

Nonbreeding range

to Izu Is., n Ryukyu Is. (=Nansei Shoto; se, sw Japan), coastal e China and Taiwan