---
title: "Why Great Cormorants spread their wings"
description: "A Great Cormorant often holds its wings out after a swim. See why the pose fits drying and which clues help you identify the bird."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/great-cormorant/article
published: 2026-11-14T07:16:17.836Z
modified: 2026-11-14T07:16:17.836Z
lang: en
---

# Why Great Cormorants spread their wings

A Great Cormorant often holds its wings out after a swim. See why the pose fits drying and which clues help you identify the bird.

After a Great Cormorant climbs out of the water, it may stand with both wings held wide\. That pose helps explain how the bird dries after a swim\. If you arrive after it has left the water, the pose alone cannot tell you whether it caught a fish\.

## Check the bird’s shape as well as the pose

In Britain, a Great Cormorant looks stockier than a European Shag\. Both can look dark at a distance\. The slimmer Shag can show a crest in breeding plumage\. The [RSPB field guide](<https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/cormorant>) describes these differences and records Great Cormorants on inland waters as well as on the coast\.

![Two Great Cormorants with folded wings on a timber beam\. The left bird shows the yellow skin at the base of its bill\.](<https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/great-cormorant/medium.jpg?v=dbdd84dd>)

Look at the left bird’s long neck and hooked bill\. The yellow skin near the base of the bill is also visible\.

[John Cull](<https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/users/bbdown>), [CC0](<https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>). [api\.inaturalist\.org](<https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/observations/144835711>).

The [Great Cormorant’s scientific name](<https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=174715>) is Phalacrocorax carbo\. If a photograph shows mainly the spread wings, wait for a side view that shows the head, bill and body\. Use the outline and setting together before naming a bird\.

## Which feathers get wet?

The [feathers that cover the body](<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10336-022-02042-8>) have two zones\. Near the shaft, fine branches interlock\. Farther out, the branches are loose and let water through\. So a cormorant’s coat can get wet at the surface while parts nearer the body resist water\. Holding the wings open may help expose more of the body feathers to the air\.

## Drying off or warming a meal?

In [a study of nine captive Great Cormorants](<https://research.monash.edu/en/publications/wing-spreading-wing-drying-and-food-warming-in-great-cormorants-i/>), researchers timed bouts of swimming and the wing spread that followed\. They compared 29 bouts in which the birds ate fish with 19 in which they did not\. Birds that spent longer in the water tended to hold their wings out longer\. The study found no clear difference in how long they held the pose based on whether they had eaten\.

That result supports drying after a swim\. The researchers also saw some birds spread their wings while dry and without having eaten\. A still photo can capture the shape of the pose, but it cannot tell you what happened before it\.

If the view shows enough to identify the species, use [Mark as seen on the Great Cormorant page](<https://animalchecklist.com/animal/great-cormorant>)\. If all you saw was the pose, watch from where you are for another angle\.