King Shag
Encyclopedia
The Rough-faced Shag also known as New Zealand King Shag or King Shag, is a rare bird endemic
to New Zealand
.
with pink feet. White patches on the wings appear as bars when the wings are folded. Yellow-orange swellings (caruncules) are found above the base of the bill. The grey gular pouch is reddish in the breeding season. A blue eye-ring indicates its kinship with the other blue-eyed shag
s.
.
They can be seen from the Cook Strait Ferry
in Queen Charlotte Sound
opposite the beginning of the Troy Channel.
Endemic (ecology)
Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...
to New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
Description
It is a large (76 cm long, 2.5 kg in weight) black and white cormorantCormorant
The bird family Phalacrocoracidae is represented by some 40 species of cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, and the number of genera is disputed.- Names :...
with pink feet. White patches on the wings appear as bars when the wings are folded. Yellow-orange swellings (caruncules) are found above the base of the bill. The grey gular pouch is reddish in the breeding season. A blue eye-ring indicates its kinship with the other blue-eyed shag
Blue-eyed shag
The blue-eyed shags are a group of closely related cormorant taxa. All have a blue, purple or red ring around the eye ; other shared features are white underparts and pink feet....
s.
Habitat
Rough-faced Shags live in the coastal waters of the Marlborough SoundsMarlborough Sounds
The Marlborough Sounds are an extensive network of sea-drowned valleys created by a combination of land subsidence and rising sea levels at the north of the South Island of New Zealand...
.
They can be seen from the Cook Strait Ferry
Cook Strait Ferry
Cook Strait Ferry collectively refers to the ferry services plying between the North Island and South Island of New Zealand. Currently, there are two companies, Bluebridge and Interislander, sailing several times daily from Wellington, North Island, to Picton, the crossing taking about three hours...
in Queen Charlotte Sound
Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand
Queen Charlotte Sound is the easternmost of the main sounds of the Marlborough Sounds, in New Zealand's South Island. It is, like the other sounds, a drowned river valley , and like the majority of its neighbours it runs southwest to northeast before joining Cook Strait.The town of Picton, the...
opposite the beginning of the Troy Channel.