The Imperial Shag

It’s getting harder to choose one bird for its respective letter, but I’m happy to see that this challenge is progressing and hopefully, it’ll be done before September God’s willing comes along for I have a tendency to stretch things out. In this post, we’re going to look at another beautiful bird! 

Image: The striking Imperial Shag. 

🐦 The Imperial Shag – also called the “Blue-Eyed Shag” – is a black and white cormorant that can be found down the Antarctic peninsula. In the wild, they can live up to 15 to 20 years.

🐦 These birds form large colonies often mixed with penguins and other seabirds.

Image: They do remind me of penguins… but prettier versions!

🐦 They’re the only Antarctic bird to keep a year-round nest as long as the ice holds off.

🐦 Although it’s referred to as “blue eyes”, it’s actually the region of the skin surrounding the eye that’s blue.

Image: “I’m ready for my close-up!”

🐦 The Imperial Shag fishes together in groups that are known as “rafts” and they’re able to stay underwater up to 4 minutes at a time.

Images: Pinterest; Google Search

Reference/s: coolantarctica.com; oceanwide-expeditions.com; YouTube

Related

The Anhinga

The Blood Pheasant

The Crane

The Duck

The Eagle

The Flightless Birds

The Gulls

The Hoopoe

***GIFs/Images that don’t belong to LPM are via Google Search (Right-click for original source)

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