The Little Pied Cormorant is a benthic feeder, i.e. it finds its prey on the sea floor. It feeds in relatively shallow water, often near the shore. Dive times are short, around 15 to 20 seconds, with recovery times on the surface of 5 to 10 seconds unless prey are being swallowed. In New Zealand waters it mostly eats the local flounder and other small flatfish. These are brought to the surface to be swallowed: the bird will sometimes put a fish down on the surface of the water in order to re-orient it and swallow it head first. Because of this habit, they suffer some kleptoparasitism from Red-billed Gulls.
In Guilin, China, cormorantbirds are famous for fishing on the shallow Lijiang River.
The names "cormorant" and "shag" were originally the common names of the two species of the family found in Great Britain, Phalacracorax carbo (now referred to by ornithologists as the Great Cormorant) and P.
Cormorants are colonial nesters, using trees, rocky islets, or cliffs.
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