1,740 Common Cormorants were marked with colored bands to distinguish individuals at seven colonies from March 1975 to August 1992. 1,032 cormorants were banded at Shinobazu Pond colony in Tokyo, 4 at Yumenoshima colony in Tokyo, 220 at Arai colony in Shizuoka, 442 at Unoyama in Aichi, 12 at Chikubu Island colony in Shiga, 12 Isaki colony in Shiga, and 18 Okiguro Island colony in Oita. About 70% of the banded cormorants were nestlings. All Common Cormorants banded are registered in this paper.
These bands were designed to easily distinguish the year of birth as well as the colony of each individual. We utilized 3 types of hand-made color bands; vinyl pipes passed through copper cords (VPB), ringed plastic plates (PB), and ringed vinyl chloride sheets (VCB). VPB bands are the longest lasting (more than 16 years), but require extensive time and technical labor to attach. Although PB bands require extensive labor to make, they are easy to attach to the cormorant's legs. Various letters, numbers and marks were inscribed on the PB bands, and a large number of bands which were individually distinguishable bands were prepared. VCB bands are easy to distinguish from a distance, but tended to fall off after just a few years.
View full abstract