Keywords
Neotropic Cormorant
Phalacrocorax brasilianus
roosting site
seasonal variation
Abstract
Censuses of the Neotropic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax brasilianus) were carried out at a power tower near the mouth of Lagoa dos Patos estuary, southern Brazil, from November 2001 to October 2002. At this major roosting site, a total of 309 counts over 47 days of census were performed to estimate monthly variation in the abundance of the Neotropic Cormorant. The highest abundance occurred in January (1390 birds), and the lowest in May (117 birds). The tower was a roosting site for cormorants at night, which arrived around 15:30 h onward, with numbers increasing near dusk. Birds preferentially used the lower levels of the tower (including the concrete base and levels 1 and 2) throughout the year and this preference could be partially due to strong winds in the area. Migrating cormorants arrived at the estuary in winter and spring, increasing throughout the summer and severely decreasing in autumn months, when they probably moved to inland breeding grounds.
References
ASMUS ML (1998) A planície costeira e a Lagoa dosPatos. Pp. 9–12 in: SEELIGER U, ODEBRECHT C ANDCASTELLO JP (eds) Os ecossistemas costeiro e marinhodo extremo sul do Brasil. Ecoscientia, Rio Grande
AYRES M AND AYRES M JR (1998) BioEstat, aplicaçõesestatísticas nas áreas das ciências biológicas e médicas.Sociedade Civil Mamirauá, Manaus
AZEVEDO TR (1995) Estudo da avifauna do campusda Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina(Florianópolis). Biotemas 8:7–35
BARQUETE V, BUGONI L AND VOOREN CM (2008) Dietof Neotropic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax brasilianus)in an estuarine environment. Marine Biology153:431–443
BELTON W (1994) Aves do Rio Grande do Sul, distribuiçãoe biologia. Unisinos, São Leopoldo
BIBBY CJ, BURGESS ND AND HILL DA (1993) Bird censustechniques. Academic Press, London
BIRT VL, BIRT TP, GOULET D, CAIRNS DK AND MONTE-VECCHI WA (1987) Ashmole’s halo: direct evidencefor prey depletion by a seabird. Marine EcologyProgress Series 40:205–208
BÓ NA (1956) Observaciones morfológicas y etoló-gicas sobre el Biguá. Hornero 10:147–157
BRAGA MFS AND KRUSCHE N (2000) Padrão de ventosem Rio Grande, RS, no período de 1992 a 1995.Atlântica 22:27–40
BRANCO JO (2002) Flutuações sazonais na abundânciade Phalacrocorax brasilianus (Gmelin) no estuário doSaco da Fazenda, Itajaí, Santa Catarina, Brasil. Re-vista Brasileira de Zoologia 19:1057–1062
BROWNING MR (1989) The correct name for theOlivaceous Cormorant, “Maiague” of Piso (1658).Wilson Bulletin 101:101–106
BUGONI L, CORMONS TD, BOYNE AW AND HAYS H(2005) Feeding grounds, daily foraging activities,and movements of Common Terns in southernBrazil, determined by radio-telemetry. Waterbirds28:468–477
BUGONI L AND VOOREN CM (2004) Feeding ecology ofthe Common Tern Sterna hirundo in a wintering areain southern Brazil. Ibis 146:438–453
BUGONI L AND VOOREN CM (2005) Distribution andabundance of six tern species in southern Brazil.Waterbirds 28:110–119
CALLIARI LJ (1998) Características geológicas. Pp. 13–18in: SEELIGER U, ODEBRECHT C AND CASTELLO JP (eds)Os ecossistemas costeiro e marinho do extremo sul doBrasil. Ecoscientia, Rio Grande
CASTELLO JP (1986) Distribución, crecimiento y ma-duración sexual de la corvina juvenil (Micropogoniasfurnieri) en el estuario de la “Lagoa dos Patos”, Brasil.Physis, A 44:21–36
COLEMAN JTH AND RICHMOND ME (2007) Daily forag-ing patterns of adult Double-crested Cormorantsduring the breeding season. Waterbirds 30:189–198
DACIUK J, PADIN OH AND PROTOGINO LC (1985) Cen-sos de la avifauna de la laguna Chascomús (Prov.de Buenos Aires, Argentina). Physis, B 43:93–102
DUFFY DC AND SIEGFRIED WR (1987) Historical varia-tions in food consumption by breeding seabirds ofthe Humboldt and Benguela upwelling regions.Pp. 327–346 in: CROXALL JP (ed) Seabirds: feedingbiology and role in marine ecosystems. Cambridge Uni-versity Press, Cambridge
ESCALANTE R (1970) Aves marinas del Río de la Plata yaguas vecinas del Océano Atlántico. Barreiro y Ramos,Montevideo
FRERE E, QUINTANA F AND GANDINI P (2005) Cormora-nes de la costa patagónica: estado poblacional,ecología y conservación. Hornero 20:35–52
HARRISON P (1985) Seabirds, an identification guide.Houghton Mifflin, Boston
HEBSHI A (1998) Foraging site preferences of Brandt’sCormorants off the Santa Cruz, California, coast.Colonial Waterbirds 21:245–250
DEL HOYO J, ELLIOTT A AND SARGATAL J (1992) Hand-book of the birds of the world. Volume 1. Ostrich to ducks.Lynx Edicions, Barcelona
JOHANSEN R, BARRETT RT AND PEDERSEN T (2001) For-aging strategies of Great Cormorants Phalacrocoraxcarbo carbo wintering north of the Artic Circle. BirdStudy 48:59–67
JORDÁN R (1959) El fenómeno de las regurgitacionesen el Guanay (Phalacrocorax bougainvillii L) y unmétodo para estimar la ingestión diaria. Boletín dela Compañía Administradora del Guano 34:23–40
KALMBACH E, RAMSAY SC, WENDELN H AND BECKER PH(2001) A study of Neotropic Cormorants in CentralChile: possible effects of El Niño. Waterbirds24:345–351
KING DT, GLAHN JF AND ANDREWS KJ (1995) Dailyactivity budgets and movements of winter roost-ing Double-crested Cormorants determined by bio-telemetry in the Delta Region of Mississippi. Colo-nial Waterbirds 18:152–157
NAVES LC AND VOOREN CM (2006) Diet of Black Skim-mers in Southern Brazil. Waterbirds 29:335–344
OLROG CC (1968) El anillado de aves en la Argentina.1964–1966. Quinto informe. Neotropica 14:17–22
OLROG CC (1975) Vagrancy in Neotropical Cormo-rant, egrets, and White-faced Ibis. Bird Banding46:207–212
DELA PEÑA MR (1980) Notas nidológicas sobre biguaesy cormoranes (aves: Anhingidae y Phalacroco-racidae). Historia Natural 1:109–112
PINTO OMO (1964) Ornitologia brasiliense. Secreta-ria de Agricultura do Estado de São Paulo, SãoPaulo
PINTO OMO (1978) Novo catálogo das aves do Brasil.Part I. Emp. Gráfica da Revista dos Tribunais, SãoPaulo
REIS EG, VIEIRA PC AND DUARTE VS (1994) Pescaartesanal de teleósteos no estuário da Lagoa dosPatos e costa do Rio Grande do Sul. Atlântica16:69–86
RICHNER H (1995) Wintering cormorants Phalacrocoraxcarbo carbo in the Ythan estuary, Scotland: numeri-cal and behavioural responses to fluctuating preyavailability. Ardea 83:193–197
SICK H (1997) Ornitologia brasileira. Nova Fronteira,Rio de Janeiro
DA SILVA CJ, ABDO MSA, OLIVEIRA DMM AND GIARD P(2000) Caracterização ambiental do ninhal Coru-tuba, Pantanal de Barão de Melgaço, MT. Pp. 1–11in: DANTAS M, KAWAKAMI ER AND COMASTRI FILHO JA(eds) Anais do III Simpósio sobre recursos naturais esócio-econômicos do Pantanal. Os desafios do novomilênio. Embrapa Pantanal, Corumbá
SINQUE C AND MUELBERT JH (1998) Ictioplâncton.Pp. 56–60 in: SEELIGER U, ODEBRECHT C AND CASTELLOJP (eds) Os ecossistemas costeiro e marinho do extremosul do Brasil. Ecoscientia, Rio Grande
TELFAIR RC II AND MORRISON ML (1995) NeotropicCormorant (Phalacrocorax brasilianus). Pp. 1–22 in:POOLE A AND GILL F (eds) The Birds of North America.Academy of Natural Sciences and American Orni-thologists’ Union, Philadelphia and Washington DC
VOOREN CM AND CHIARADIA A (1990) Seasonal abun-dance and behaviour of coastal birds on CassinoBeach, Brazil. Ornitología Neotropical 1:9–24
WANLESS S, FINNEY SK, HARRIS MP AND MCCAFFERTYDJ (1999) Effect of the diel light cycle on the divingbehaviour of two bottom feeding marine birds: theBlue-eyed Shag Phalacrocorax atriceps and the Euro-pean Shag P. aristotelis. Marine Ecology Progress Series188:219–224
ZAR JH (1999) Biostatistical analysis. Fourth edition.Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.