Great cormorant
Amazing fact
Great cormorants can drink seawater and remove excess salt from their bodies.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
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Great cormorants can drink seawater and remove excess salt from their bodies.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Great cormorant
- Scientific name
- Phalacrocorax carbo
- Japanese name
- カワウ
- Group
- Birds
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Suliformes
- Family
- Phalacrocoracidae
- Genus
- Phalacrocorax
Where the name “Great cormorant” comes from
The scientific name carbo means charcoal in Latin.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebA dark-colored waterbird. In Japan it prefers the shores of inland lakes and rivers to rocky coasts.
Its feathers soak up water easily, so after coming out of the water it spreads its wings to dry them.
Underwater it swims with its feet, spotting fish by sight and chasing them down to eat.
How the Great cormorant lives
They are active by day and tend to leave their roosts early in the morning to forage. They eat small fish underwater and bring larger fish to the surface to swallow. When resting, they hold their neck in a relaxed S-shaped curve.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Size
- Length: 84–90 cmWingspan: 130–160 cm
- Weight
- 2.6–3.7 kg
- Diet
- Fish and occasionally crustaceans
Where the Great cormorant has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- カワウ
- 简体中文
- 普通鸬鹚
- 繁體中文
- 普通鸕鷀
- 한국어
- 민물가마우지
- Español
- Cormorán grande
- Français
- Grand Cormoran
- Deutsch
- Kormoran
- Português (Brasil)
- Corvo-marinho-de-faces-brancas
- Italiano
- Cormorano comune
- العربية
- غاقة كبيرة
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Pecuk-padi besar
- Tiếng Việt
- Cốc đế
- Русский
- Большой баклан
- Türkçe
- Karabatak
- ไทย
- นกกาน้ำใหญ่
- বাংলা
- বড় পানকৌড়ি
- اردو
- بڑا پن کوا
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 観光庁 地域観光資源の多言語解説文データベース — 「ウミウ」ってどんな鳥？Checked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Phalacrocorax carboChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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