Terushima Cormorant Habitat
Iwaki, Japan
Terushima Cormorant Habitat (Terushima U Seisokuchi) is located in Shimokawa, Izumi-cho, Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, and is a habitat for Japanese cormorants designated as a national natural monument. Terushima is a small island made of tuffaceous sandstone with a cliff of 31 meters in height, located approximately 250 meters offshore from the coast of the mainland. It was designated as a national natural monument on February 22, 1945, under the third category of the designation criteria for animals: "animal or animal group unique to the natural environment." The Japanese cormorant (Phalacrocorax capillatus) is a bird classified in the genus Cormorant, in the order Suliformes, and is known for its use in the traditional fishing method of cormorant fishing in Japan. They mainly live near the coast, and their habitat and breeding grounds in Japan range from the north of Honshu to the Hokkaido coast, as well as islands and cape reefs in northern Honshu. In the winter, they migrate to southwestern Honshu to overwinter. Terushima is located at the southernmost tip of the Tohoku region on the Pacific side, and they usually fly there from October to November and stay on the rocky area of the island, returning to the north of Japan around March to April of the following year, but some visit Terushima throughout the year. Some resident birds are seen, and a small number of these are
NatureReserve data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).