Little shag

This is the little shag (Phalacrocorax melanoleucos). It’s quite a bit smaller than the pied shag, at 56-58 cm long, compared to the pied shag’s 65-85 cm. The little shag is found throughout New Zealand’s coastal areas and the population is thought to be between 5000 and 10,000 pairs. Little shags like to feed in shallow waters, so estuaries, swamps, lagoons and lakes are their thing. They’re fussy about how they swallow their food: they will bring caught fish to the surface and will even put them on the water’s surface to get the prey item’s orientation right (so the fish goes down head first). Red-billed gulls will sometimes take the opportunity to snatch the fish away.