blue-eyed shag

{{Short description|Genus of birds}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| name = Blue-eyed shags

| image = {{Css Image Crop|Image = SGI-2016-South Georgia (Cooper Bay)–Blue-eyed shag (Phalacrocorax atriceps).jpg|bSize = 475|cWidth = 235|cHeight = 330|oTop = 200|oLeft = 85|Location = center}}

| image_caption = South Georgia shag
Phalacrocorax georgianus

| taxon = Leucocarbo

| authority = Bonaparte, 1856

| type_species = Carbo bougainvillii (guanay cormorant)

| type_species_authority = Lesson, 1837

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision = See text

| synonyms = Phalacrocorax (in part)

Euleucocarbo Voisin, 1973

Nesocarbo Voisin, 1973

Notocarbo Siegel-Causey, 1988

}}

Leucocarbo is a genus of birds in the family Phalacrocoracidae. Several species within the genus are collectively known as blue-eyed shags. This is a group of closely related cormorant taxa. Many have a blue, purple or red ring around the eye (not a blue iris); other shared features are white underparts (at least in some individuals) and pink feet.{{cite book | last = Nelson | first = J. Bryan | year = 2006 | title = Pelicans, Cormorants, and Their Relatives: The Pelecaniformes | publisher = Oxford University Press, U.S.A. | pages = 476–511, Plate 8 | isbn = 978-0-19-857727-0}}

They are found around the colder parts of the Southern Hemisphere, especially near southern South America, Antarctica, and New Zealand. Many are endemic to remote islands. Determining which types are species and which are subspecies of what larger species is problematic; various recent authorities have recognized from 8 to 14 species and have placed them in a variety of genera. The common names are even more confusing, "like myriad footprints criss-crossing in the snow and about as easy to disentangle." Only one common name is given for most species here.

Taxonomy

The genus Leucocarbo was introduced in 1856 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte.{{ cite journal | last=Bonaparte | first=Charles Lucien | author-link=Charles Lucien Bonaparte | year=1856 | title=Excusion dans les divers Musées d'Allemagne, de Hollande et de Belgique, et tableaux paralléliques de l'ordre des échassiers (suite)| language=French | journal=Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences | volume=43 | pages=571–579 [575] | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/1211111 }} He did not specify a type species but this was designated as the guanay cormorant by William Ogilvie-Grant in 1898.{{ cite book | last1=Sharpe | first1=R.B. | author1-link=Richard Bowdler Sharpe | last2=Ogilvie-Grant | first2=W.R. | author2-link=William Robert Ogilvie-Grant | year=1898 | title=Catalogue of the Plataleae, Herodiones, Steganopodes, Pygopodes, Alcae and Impennes in the collection of the British Museum | volume=26 | publisher=Trustees of the British Museum |location=London | page=331 | series=Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8381138 }}{{ cite book | editor1-last=Mayr | editor1-first=Ernst | editor1-link=Ernst Mayr | editor2-last=Cottrell | editor2-first=G. William | year=1979 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=1 | edition=2nd | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=164 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16108804 }} The name Leucocarbo combines the Ancient Greek leukos meaning "white" with the genus name Carbo introduced by Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1799.{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=223 | url=https://archive.org/stream/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling#page/n223/mode/1up }}

A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that Leucocarbo is sister to the American cormorants in the genus Nannopterum; the genera split between 6.7 - 8.0 million years ago.{{Cite journal | last1=Kennedy | first1=M. | last2=Spencer | first2=H.G. | date=2014 | title=Classification of the cormorants of the world | journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution | volume=79 | pages=249–257 | doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2014.06.020| pmid=24994028 }}

The genus contains 15 species:{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela C. Rasmussen | date=February 2025 | title=Storks, frigatebirds, boobies, darters, cormorants | work=IOC World Bird List Version 15.1 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/storks/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=19 March 2025}}

class="wikitable"
ImageScientific nameCommon NameDistribution
120pxLeucocarbo magellanicusRock shag or Magellanic cormorantThe coast of Argentina, Uruguay and southern Chile.
120pxLeucocarbo bougainvilliiGuanay cormorantThe western coast of South America (Extirpated from Argentina).
120pxLeucocarbo ranfurlyiBounty shagBounty Islands.
120pxLeucocarbo carunculatusNew Zealand king shag, rough-faced shag or kawauNew Zealand.
120pxLeucocarbo onslowiChatham shagChatham Islands.
120pxLeucocarbo chalconotusStewart Island shagEastern coast of New Zealand.
120pxLeucocarbo colensoiAuckland shagAuckland Islands.
Leucocarbo campbelliCampbell shagCampbell Island.
120pxLeucocarbo atricepsImperial shag or blue-eyed shagSouthern Chile and Argentina.
120pxLeucocarbo georgianusSouth Georgia shagSouth Georgia and the Shag Rocks.
120pxLeucocarbo melanogenisCrozet shagCrozet Island, Prince Edward Island and Marion Island.
120pxLeucocarbo bransfieldensisAntarctic shagThe Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland Islands and Elephant Island.
120pxLeucocarbo verrucosusKerguelen shagKerguelen Islands.
Leucocarbo nivalisHeard Island shagHeard and McDonald Islands.
120pxLeucocarbo purpurascensMacquarie shagMacquarie Island.

References

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Category:Leucocarbo

Category:Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte