Crowned cormorants feed on slow-moving fish and invertebrates, which they forage for in shallow coastal waters and among kelp beds.It mainly eats klipfish, doing most of it foraging in rock pools and in the breaking waves, pursuing its prey underwater in bouts of roughly 7-59 seconds. Its jaw is adapted to handling slow-moving, bottom-dwelling fish, as it struggles to catch more fast moving prey. The following food items have been recorded in its diet Fish Clinus superciliosus (Super klipfish) Syngnathus (pipefish) Chaloderma capito (Looseskin blenny) Spicara axillaris (Windtoy) Heteromycteris capensis (Cape sole) Invertebrates crustaceans Palaemon pacificus (Sand shrimp) isopods amphipods molluscs octopus polychaete worms Sabellastarte longa (Giant fanworm)
Monogamous, colonial nester, nesting in small colonies with less than 30 nests, often within a larger colony of other seabirds, herons and egrets. The male displays at his nest site, puffing its feathers and rapidly jerking his head backward and forward.The nest is mainly built by the female, consisting of a platform of sticks, dry seaweed, feathers and bones, often stained pink with guano. It is typically placed on an island or some other site which is inaccessible to mammalian predators, such as a cliff, ledge, wrecked ship, boulder, moored boat, pier or rocky outcrop.The Egg-laying season is year-round, peaking from September-March and it lays 1-5 eggs, which are incubated by both sexes for 21-23 days.The chicks leave the nest at about 12 days old for the rocks and sea adjacent to the colony, taking their first flight at roughly 35 days old and becoming fully independent about 10-25 days later.To see more pics....
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