Microcarbo

Microcarbo
Little pied cormorant Microcarbo melanoleucos
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Suliformes
Family:	Phalacrocoracidae
Genus:	Microcarbo Bonaparte, 1856
Species
See text

Microcarbo is a genus of fish-eating birds, known as cormorants, of the family Phalacrocoracidae. The genus was formerly subsumed within Phalacrocorax.

Microcarbo has been recognized as a valid genus by the IOC’s World Bird List (Gill and Donsker 2010) on the basis of work by Siegel-Causey (1988), Kennedy et al. (2000), and Christidis and Boles (2008).

As suggested by the name, this genus contains the smallest of the world's cormorants. Five living and one extinct species are recognized.

List of species

Image	Scientific name	Common Name	Distribution
	Microcarbo coronatus	Crowned cormorant	Cape Agulhas north to Swakopmund along the coast of southern Africa
	Microcarbo niger	Little cormorant	Indian Subcontinent and extends east to Java
	Microcarbo melanoleucos	Little pied cormorant	New Zealand, from Stewart Island to Northland, mainland Australia, Tasmania and Indonesia
	Microcarbo pygmeus	Pygmy cormorant	south-east of Europe (east of Italy) and south-west of Asia, in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan
	Microcarbo africanus	Reed cormorant	Africa south of the Sahara, and Madagascar

• †Serventys' cormorant, Microcarbo serventyorum

Sources

• Christidis, L., and W. E. Boles. 2008. Systematics and taxonomy of Australian birds. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria, Australia.
• Gill, F., and D. Donsker (eds.). 2010. IOC World Bird Names (Version 2.4). Available at (Accessed 12 May 2010).
• Kennedy, M., R. D. Gray, and H. G. Spencer. 2000. The phylogenetic relationships of the shags and cormorants: can sequence data resolve a disagreement between behavior and morphology? Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 17: 345-359.
• Siegel-Causey, D. 1988. Phylogeny of the Phalacrocoracidae. Condor 90: 885-905. Available at (Accessed 13 May 2010).