I am sure most of us would have seen the cormorants in the village ponds or in any other water body taking a dip into the water and emerging at some other point on the water surface empty or with a prize catch of a fish.

These birds are native to every continent in the world …They exclusively feed on the fishes. The way they gulp the fish is interesting to watch. They take a dip into the water ,look /search for the same and then catch it with its beak They come on the water surface and gulp the same into the throat.

It is interesting to know that they are used in fishing industry to catch the fishes. Commercial fishing is practiced in China and Japan since more than ten centuries.

The fisherman ties a thread at the end of the neck of the cormorant to prevent him from swallowing the fish. The fish caught by them is retrieved by opening their mouth. Once again the cormorant takes another dip in the water to catch another fish.

Fishing using Cormorants is an ancient Chinese tradition and it is still going on. But now the tradition is preserved as a tourist attraction.

A few images taken a few years ago in the Yamuna Biodiversity Park in North Delhi are exhibited at the Aravalli Utsav ,India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road ,New Delhi