Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo
Summer abundance change
Regular winter visitor from Britain/continental Europe, also local in summer, has bred
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Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2013
Atlas species lists
- Breeding distribution 1995–2000
- Summer abundance 1995–2000
- Winter distribution 1995–2000
- Winter abundance 1995–2000
- Breeding distribution 2007–2012
- Summer abundance 2007–2012
- Winter distribution 2007–2012
- Winter abundance 2007–2012
- Breeding distribution change
- Summer abundance change
- Winter distribution change
- Winter abundance change
More Cormorant maps
- Breeding distribution 1995–2000
- Summer abundance 1995–2000
- Winter distribution 1995–2000
- Winter abundance 1995–2000
- Breeding distribution 2007–2012
- Summer abundance 2007–2012
- Winter distribution 2007–2012
- Winter abundance 2007–2012
- Breeding distribution change
- Summer abundance change
- Winter distribution change
- Winter abundance change
More maps for this atlas
Map explanation
This map shows where changes occurred in the relative abundance of the species in Wiltshire between 1995-2000 and 2007-2012, as revealed by the fieldwork for Birds of Wiltshire (Wiltshire Ornithological Society 2007) and the shared fieldwork for Bird Atlas 2007-2011 (BTO 2013) and for Wiltshire Tetrad Atlas 2007-2012.
Key
Relative to average
Nos tetrads
More abundant
35
4%
Equally abundant
0
0%
Less abundant
0
0%
Not surveyed in both periods
Cormorants were traditionally regarded as seabirds but have become increasingly familiar in winter in inland waters. They breed across Eurasia from Iceland to Japan. In northwest Europe they nest mainly in colonies along rocky coasts, including in Great Britain, though in recent years there has been a significant increase in inland breeding, especially in southeast England.
In Wiltshire Cormorants were heavily persecuted in the 19th and 20th centuries because of their perceived threat to fisheries, persecution that partly continued, illegally, even after the introduction of protection in the 1980s. Despite this, numbers wintering in the county increased steadily in line with the marked national spread into inland waters: the 1981-84 Winter Atlas recorded the species in only nine 10km Wiltshire squares. Birds of Wiltshire found them in 18; WTA2 recorded them on all the significant rivers and lakes, in a total of 32 core 10km squares.
In the breeding season the species was regarded as only an occasional visitor to the county until the latter part of the 20th century when they began to be recorded regularly in small numbers during the summer. The first breeding record for the county occurred at the Cotswold Water Park (CWP) in 1994. Birds of Wiltshire recorded Cormorants present in 42 tetrads in summer though with no further evidence of breeding. It was not until 2009 that the next breeding attempt was recorded; WTA2 recorded confirmed breeding in two tetrads (one at the CWP and the other near Charlton-All-Saints on the River Avon south of Salisbury), probable breeding in two others and presence in 80 tetrads.
References
The following references are used throughout these species accounts, in the abbreviated form given in quotation marks:
“1968-72 Breeding Atlas” – Sharrack, J.T.R. 1976: The Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland. T. & A. Poyser
“1981-84 Winter Atlas” – Lack, P.C. 1986: The Atlas of Wintering Birds in Britain and Ireland. T. & A. Poyser
“1988-91 Breeding Atlas” – Gibbons, D.W., Reid, J.B. & Chapman, R.A. 1993: The New Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland 1988-91. T. & A. Poyser
“Birds of Wiltshire” – Ferguson-Lees, I.J. et al. 2007 : Birds of Wiltshire, published by the tetrad atlas group of the Wiltshire Ornithological Society after mapping fieldwork 1995-2000. Wiltshire Ornithological Society.
“Bird Atlas 2007-2011” – Balmer, D.E., Gillings, S., Caffrey, B.J., Swann, R.L., Downie, I.S. and Fuller, R.J. 2013: Bird Atlas 2007-2011: the Breeding and Wintering Birds of Britain and Ireland
“WTA2” – ("Wiltshire Tetrad Atlas 2 ") the present electronic publication, bringing together the Wiltshire data from “Birds of Wiltshire” and “Bird Atlas 2007-11”, together with data from further fieldwork carried out in 2011 and 2012.
"Hobby" - the annual bird report of the Wiltshire Ornithological Society.