Phalacrocorax


Phalacrocorax is a genus of fish-eating birds in the cormorant family Phalacrocoracidae.

Taxonomy

The genus Phalacrocorax was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the great cormorant as the type species. Phalacrocorax is the Latin word for a "cormorant".
The genus contains 22 species including one species that became extinct in the 19th century.
A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that the genus Phalacrocorax was non-monophyletic and that a group of five species currently placed in this genus were more closely related to members of Leucocarbo. This group contained the rock shag, the double-crested cormorant, the neotropic cormorant, the flightless cormorant and the European shag.