Urile is a genus of birds in the family Phalacrocoracidae, commonly known as North Pacific cormorants. It contains 3 extant and 1 recently extinct species, all of which are or were found in the North Pacific Ocean.

Urile
Pelagic cormorant, U. pelagicus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Suliformes
Family: Phalacrocoracidae
Genus: Urile
Bonaparte, 1856
Type species
Pelecanus urile
Species

Urile penicillatus
Urile urile
Urile pelagicus
Urile perspicillatus

Members of this genus were formerly classified within the genus Phalacrocorax. Based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014,[1] the genus Phalacrocorax was split and these species were moved to the resurrected genus Urile that had been introduced in 1856 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte with the red-faced cormorant as the type species.[2][3][4] Urile is thought to have split from Phalacrocorax 8.9 - 10.3 million years ago.[1] The genus contains four species, of which one is now extinct.[4]

List of species

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Genus Urile Bonaparte, 1856 – four species
Common name Scientific name and subspecies Range Size and ecology IUCN status and estimated population
Brandt's cormorant

 

Urile penicillatus
(Brandt, 1837)
Pacific Coast of North America; resident from southern British Columbia south to Baja California, nonbreeding range extends north to Gulf of Alaska and south to Sinaloa
 
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 


Red-faced cormorant

 

Urile urile
(Gremlin, JF, 1789)
coastlines of North Pacific Ocean of both Asia and North America, from Hokkaido east to the Gulf of Alaska
 
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 


Pelagic cormorant

 

Urile pelagicus
(Pallas, 1811)

Two subspecies
coastlines of North Pacific Ocean of both Asia and North America, breeding range from eastern Russia east to western North America as far south as the Coronado Islands; wintering range extends as far south as Taiwan on the western end of range and central Baja California on the eastern end of range
 
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 


Spectacled cormorant

 

Urile perspicillatus
(Pallas, 1811)
(formerly) Bering Island, Russia; potentially other islands in the Commander Islands, as well as the parts of the adjacent Kamchatka Peninsula. Now extinct. Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 EX 




References

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  1. ^ a b Kennedy, Martyn; Spencer, Hamish G. (2014). "Classification of the cormorants of the world". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 79: 249–257. Bibcode:2014MolPE..79..249K. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2014.06.020. PMID 24994028.
  2. ^ Bonaparte, Charles Lucien (1856). "Excusion dans les divers Musées d'Allemagne, de Hollande et de Belgique, et tableaux paralléliques de l'ordre des échassiers (suite)". Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences (in French). 43: 571–579 [574].
  3. ^ Chesser, R.T.; Billerman, S.M.; Burns, K.J.; Cicero, C.; Dunn, J.L.; Hernández-Baños, B.E.; Kratter, A.W.; Lovette, I.J.; Mason, N.A.; Rasmussen, P.C.; Remsen, J.V.J.; Stotz, D.F.; Winker, K. (2021). "Sixty-second Supplement to the American Ornithological Society's Check-list of North American Birds". Ornithology. 138 (ukab037). doi:10.1093/ornithology/ukab037.
  4. ^ a b Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2022). "Storks, frigatebirds, boobies, darters, cormorants". IOC World Bird List Version 12.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 20 November 2022.