Phalacrocorax gaimardi
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The red-legged cormorant (Poikilocarbo gaimardi), also known as the red-legged shag, red-footed cormorant, red-footed shag, Gaimard's cormorant and grey cormorant, is a species of cormorant resident to the coastline of South America. It is the only member of the genus Poikilocarbo. It is non-colonial unlike most seabirds. The red-legged cormorant has not been observed wing-spreading, which is unusual among cormorant species.
The red-legged cormorant was traditionally placed within the genus Phalacrocorax, but this assignment has been contested in recent years. Some phylogenetic studies have suggested that this species should be placed within Notocarbo, finding it to be most closely related to other southern-hemisphere shags, such as the spotted shag. A 2014 study found it to represent the second most basal genus of cormorant, with only Microcarbo being more basal, and thus reclassified into the genus Poikilocarbo. This classification was followed by the IOC in 2021. It has been suggested that the population of red-legged cormorants on the Atlantic coast are a separate subspecies. They are slightly smaller and have marginally paler plumage compared to the birds of the... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lima | 🇵🇪 Peru |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Red-legged Cormorant sighting in Lima on a given day, based on 412 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 87th most-seen of the 171 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March to August
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Red-legged Cormorant in Lima on a given day, against under 5% in September to February, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red-legged Cormorant sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Lima, in our data
Lima is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Red-legged Cormorant sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red-legged Cormorant is recorded against all the birds logged in Lima (412 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.
