Cormorant

Description

Cormorants are medium-to-large seabirds, with dark feathers and lighter exposed skin on the neck and face, webbing connecting all the toes of their feet. Their bills, ending in sharp hooks, are long and thin. Cormorants excrete a substance which renders their feathers resistant to water, important for their streamlined diving posture while submerged.

Habitat

Though they are often associated with the oceans of the West, cormorants are coastal birds, preferring to remain near land rather than taking to the open seas, with some making their homes along inland lakes and major river systems (such as those of the River Province). They are found across the Blessed Isle and the coasts of the Inner Sea, their range stretching up the vast rivers of the Scavenger Lands and out amongst the island chains of the West, though their range is severely limited in the the Northeast due to competition from Diving Herons.

Diet & Behaviour

Cormorants consume a diet of fish and eels, even known to prey on small water snakes should opportunity arise. They hunt by way of a hopping dive, pushing deep (as far as 150ft) underwater, though they remain only for short periods.

After a session of fishing, cormorants can typically be seen on outcrops and shorelines, to bask in the light of the Unconquered Sun with wings extended in order to dry out their feathers.

Cormorants nest together in large colonies, preferring cliffs or rocky islets as well as trees close to the shoreline. They typically lay one brood of chalk-blue eggs each year.

Variants

The further Westward one travels, the darker cormorants become, with one exception: in the Southwestern Threshold, off the coast of An Teng, the rocky mists of the Cormorant Isles are said to be home to a rare variety of ghostly bird, the White Cormorants.

Cultural Significance

In the River Province, Blessed Isle, and some Western Islands, semi-domesticated cormorants are employed by fisherfolk to catch fish. Tight metal bands are placed around the throat of a cormorant, preventing it from swallowing any but the smallest fish. The cormorant must instead return to the fisher with its catch, and the fisher will (eventually) cut up a fish into small chunks which the cormorant is able to eat.

In the mountain-fed rivers of Lord’s Crossing Dominion, cormorant fishing is traditionally carried out at night, large braziers at the bow of the fishing boat illuminating the water so the cormorant can find fish. The most common catch is sweetfish, and watching the brazier-lit fishing is a traditional venue for poetry contests amongst local Dynasts: in some cases, special ‘dancing boats’ filled with dancers or acting troupes will perform on the rivers as the Dynasts watch, surrounded by fishing cormorants.