I found this fish eating bird at close range at the coast of the Parque Natural de Mondragó, not far from Santanyí, in the South East of Mallorca. The Nature Reserve of Mondragó is one of four Parques Naturales de Baleares. The others are Península de Llevant, S’Albufera de Mallorca and Sa Dragonera. There is also one Parque Nacional de las Islas Baleares, the Archipiélago de Cabrera.

The bird appears to be a cormorán moñudo (Phalacrocorax aristotelis), a European Shag or Common Shag, and as such is a member of the cormorant family. In some tribal civilizations, cormorants are traditionally seen as semi-sacred. It is regarded as good luck to have cormorants gather near your village or settlement. I feel quite lucky and privileged to have some of these aves so near to where I live.

The photo was taken in Cala Mondragó, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: August 4th, 2008. The time was 09:40:18.