Great Cormorant
Phalacrocorax carbo
See this bird on the water. Private boat tours from Rijeka Crnojevića, your group only.
The great cormorant is the lake's most conspicuous fisherman: large, black, heavy-billed, and usually seen either swimming low in the water with just the neck showing or standing on a post with its wings held open to dry.
Records are spread right across the year with peaks in April, May, July and October, so this is a bird you can count on whenever you visit.
Its feathers are deliberately not fully waterproof, which is why it spends so much time drying them — the trade-off is that it sinks more easily and dives better than a fully waterproofed bird.
When to see it on Lake Skadar
Most often recorded in April, May, July and October, from 874 sightings logged on the lake. April is the single strongest month.
- Jan: 19 records
- Feb: 14 records
- Mar: 75 records
- Apr: 126 records
- May: 117 records
- Jun: 96 records
- Jul: 112 records
- Aug: 78 records
- Sep: 88 records
- Oct: 103 records
- Nov: 27 records
- Dec: 17 records
Peak months Other months
Conservation status
Least Concern
Records on the lake
874
Peak season
Apr, May, Jul and Oct
Habitat
Open water, perching on posts and dead trees
Where on the lake
Perched on dead trees, posts and rocks along the whole route, and fishing in the deeper water where the river meets the lake. Often alongside the much smaller pygmy cormorant, which makes for a useful size comparison.
How to tell it apart
Big and heavy-billed, with a white chin patch and, in spring, a white thigh patch.
