---
title: "Flightless Cormorant"
description: "Nannopterum harrisi — Birds. The flightless cormorant (Nannopterum harrisi), also known as the Galápagos cormorant, is a cormorant endemic to the Galápagos Islands, and an example of the highly unusual fauna there."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/flightless-cormorant
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Flightless Cormorant

> Nannopterum harrisi — Birds. The flightless cormorant (Nannopterum harrisi), also known as the Galápagos cormorant, is a cormorant endemic to the Galápagos Islands, and an example of the highly unusual fauna there.

- Scientific name: *Nannopterum harrisi*
- Category: `birds` (Birds)
- Habitats: `sea` (Sea & coast)
- iNaturalist observations: 815
- Wikidata: [Q82955137](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q82955137)
- iNaturalist taxon: [1289603](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1289603)

## Names

- en: Flightless Cormorant
- de: Galapagosscharbe
- es: Cormorán de las Galápagos
- fr: Cormoran aptère
- it: Cormorano delle Galapagos
- nl: Galápagosaalscholver
- pt: Cormorão-das-galápagos
- pl: Kormoran nielotny

## Countries with the most observations

EC (743)

## Summary

The flightless cormorant (Nannopterum harrisi), also known as the Galápagos cormorant, is a cormorant endemic to the Galápagos Islands, and an example of the highly unusual fauna there. It is unique in that it is the only known cormorant that has lost the ability to fly. It was placed in its own genus, Nannopterum, but was later placed with most of the other cormorants in the genus Phalacrocorax. A 2014 study supported reclassifying it and two other American cormorant species back into Nannopterum. The IOU followed this classification in 2021.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flightless_cormorant

## Photo

![Flightless Cormorant](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/flightless-cormorant/medium.jpg)

Photo: drtimk · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/202720784

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/flightless-cormorant?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).