| Imperial Shag Phalacrocorax atriceps (aka Imperial Cormorant, Blue-eyed Cormorant, King Cormorant) Chilean name: Cormorán imperial |
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Chile December 2005 The Imperial Shag is distributed around the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the southern tip of South America as well as in the Falklands. |
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There are two sub-species, P. atriceps atriceps found mainly on the Pacific side and P. atriceps albiventer found mainly on the Atlantic side and in the Falklands. Until the 1980s these were treated as two separate species with P. albiventer known in English as King Cormorant but they are now generally recognised as being of the same species. | |||
| The 3rd photo shows the nominate sub-species with the white of the throat extending above the level of the mouth while the 4th photo shows P. a. albiventer with less extensive white on the face. Another difference is that the nominate sub-species has a white patch on its back while breeding as seen in photo 2 which does not occur in P. a. albiventer. | |||
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