spotted shag
parekareka
phalacrocorax punctatus latin

There are a number of Spotted Shags who live on the rock.

Compared with typical cormorants, the Spotted Shag is a light-coloured bird.

Spotted Shags feed at sea, often in substantial flocks, taking its prey from mid-water rather than the bottom.

There is a Spotted Shag colony in the cliff below Whitewash Head.

There is a large nesting colony of Spotted Shags immediately south of Christchurch.

The Spotted Shag was featured on a 60-cent New Zealand postage stamp first issued in 1988, in a series devoted to native birds.

The Spotted Shag or Parekareka (Phalacrocorax punctatus) is a species of cormorant endemic to New Zealand.

Spotted Shags nest in colonies of 10-700 pairs, these colonies are generally found on the ledges of coastal cliffs (see photo at right) or on rocky islets.

Among the fauna that may be observed are Yellow-eyed penguins, Little penguins, Spotted Shags, Sooty Shearwaters, fur seals, and Hector's dolphins.

The point has been identified as an Important Bird Area, by BirdLife International because the coastal cliffs in its vicinity are a breeding site for over 500 pairs of Spotted Shags.

The majority, including nearly all Northern Hemisphere species, have mainly dark plumage, but some Southern Hemisphere species are black and white, and a few (e.g. the Spotted Shag of New Zealand) are quite colourful.

Though it was proposed to place the Pelagic Cormorant in Stictocarbo for example, this is quite certainly wrong, as the present species is by no means closely related to the Spotted Shag (P. punctatus), the type species of Stictocarbo.

The Red-legged Cormorant is placed within the genus Phalacrocorax, but it has been debated that it should be placed within Notocarbo as phylogenetic studies suggest that it is most closely related to other southern-hemisphere shags, such as Spotted Shag.

The Spotted Shag or Parekareka (Phalacrocorax punctatus) is a species of cormorant endemic to New Zealand.

Originally classified as Phalacrocorax punctatus, it is sufficiently different in appearance from typical members of that genus that to be for a time placed in a separate genus, Stictocarbo, along with another similar species, the Pitt Shag.