Phalacrocorax aristotelis
Silhouette: L. Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The European shag or common shag (Gulosus aristotelis) is a species of cormorant. It is the only member of the monotypic genus Gulosus. It breeds around the rocky coasts of western and southern Europe, southwest Asia and north Africa, mainly wintering in its breeding range except for the northernmost birds. In Britain this seabird is usually referred to as simply the shag. The scientific genus name derives from the Latin for glutton. The species name aristotelis commemorates the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
The European shag was formerly classified within the genus Phalacrocorax, but a 2014 study found it to be significantly more diverged than the clade containing Phalacrocorax and Urile, but basal to the clade containing Nannopterum and Leucocarbo, and thus classified it in its own genus, Gulosus. The IOC followed this classification in 2021. Gulosus is thought to have split from the Nannopterum-Leucocarbo clade between 9.0–11.2 million years ago.
G. a. desmarestii – (Payraudeau, 1826): found in southern Europe, southwest... Wikipedia →
Recording0:16
Isle of Man · 2021
© David Bellamy · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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Netherlands · 2016
© Dick Groenendijk · Observation.org, Nature data from around the World · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Snowdonia National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 2 | Camargue | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 3 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dublin | 🇮🇪 Ireland | |
| 2 | Istanbul | 🇹🇷 Turkey | |
| 3 | Athens | 🇬🇷 Greece | |
| 4 | Barcelona | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 5 | Izmir | 🇹🇷 Turkey | |
| 6 | Valencia | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 7 | Rotterdam [The Hague] | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | |
| 8 | Amsterdam | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | |
| 9 | Lisbon | 🇵🇹 Portugal | |
| 10 | Manchester | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a European Shag sighting in Athens on a given day, based on 185 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 49th most-seen of the 145 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January–May, July–September and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a European Shag in Athens on a given day, against under 5% in June, October and December, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most European Shag sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 12
Of the 12 cities where we can rate European Shag sightings, Athens ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Dublin (Ireland, about 20%) and Istanbul (Turkey, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the European Shag is recorded against all the birds logged in Athens (185 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
