Flightless Cormorant

Encounters with flightless cormorants occur during shallow coastal dives and snorkeling excursions off Fernandina and Isabela Islands. Divers should observe these birds from a non-intrusive distance, especially when they are surfacing or resting on shoreline rocks. In the water, cormorants hunt near the sea floor; watch them propel themselves with webbed feet while probing reef crevices with their hooked beaks. Never chase, corner, or attempt to touch a diving or swimming bird, and give them ample space to surface for air.

Keep boat propellers and dive buoys well clear of shallow foraging areas within 200 metres of shore. Maintaining neutral buoyancy in shallow water helps prevent accidental damage to the delicate volcanic reefs where cormorants hunt for bottom-dwelling prey. When observing active nesting colonies along the intertidal rocks, keep underwater movements calm and avoid creating disturbances that could stress breeding pairs or their chicks.

Flightless cormorants can be seen year-round due to their extremely sedentary nature, staying within small stretches of coastline throughout their lives. However, the best season for observing peak foraging and breeding activity occurs between April and October. During these months, sea surface temperatures are at their coldest due to the strong upwelling of the eastward-flowing Equatorial Undercurrent (Cromwell Current). This cold, nutrient-dense water fuels an abundance of marine life, ensuring plentiful food for hunting cormorants.

The cooler conditions also lower the risk of heat stress for newly hatched chicks. Consequently, breeding colonies of up to twelve pairs form during this period. Visitors during these months are most likely to witness elaborate water courtship rituals, seaweed nest building, and parents feeding their young. During periodic El Niño events, upwelling subsides and ocean temperatures rise, causing severe food shortages that suppress breeding activity.

The flightless cormorant has an exceptionally restricted geographic distribution, occurring exclusively in the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador. Its range is confined to just two islands: Fernandina and the northern and western coasts of Isabela. Within this limited region, the species inhabits rocky volcanic shorelines, sheltered bays, straits, and shallow coastal waters. Distribution is closely linked to cold-water upwelling zones driven by the Equatorial Undercurrent.

Flightless cormorants are highly sedentary, spending their entire lives within localized coastal stretches only several hundred metres long. They forage in shallow marine waters near the sea floor, staying within 200 metres of the shore. Nesting takes place on volcanic rocks situated just above the high-water line, placing their colonies in direct proximity to their shallow marine feeding grounds.

Flightless cormorants are specialised benthic predators that forage in shallow coastal waters close to the sea floor. Their diet consists primarily of bottom-dwelling marine organisms, including small octopuses, eels, fish, and squid. Unlike many seabirds that dive from high air altitudes, this species dives directly from the sea surface.

Underwater, they fold their fin-like wings against their bodies and propel themselves with sturdy legs, using their flexible necks and hooked beaks to extract prey from tight crevices, holes, and reef structure refuges. Feeding occurs within 200 metres of the coast where upwelling creates rich marine feeding grounds. Foraging is conducted during the day, with parents delivering multiple catches to their nests during periods of abundant prey. Both male and female adults share food provision duties, though females initially deliver significantly more prey items to growing chicks before handing off final parental duties to the male.