Imperial Shag

The imperial shag has a total length of 70–79 cm (28–31 in) and weighs 1.8–3.5 kg (4.0–7.7 lb), with males usually larger than females. It is endowed with glossy black feathers covering most of its body, with a white belly and neck. It possesses a distinctive ring of blue skin around its eyes, an orange-yellow nasal knob, pinkish legs and feet, and an erectile black crest. During the non-breeding season, adults lack the crest, have a duller facial area, and less or no white to the back and wings. It has a serrated bill used for catching fish. The group varies primarily in the amount of white on the cheeks/ear-coverts, wing-coverts and back. Most taxa have white cheeks and ear-coverts, but these are black in albiventer, purpurascens and melanogenis. Chicks are uniform brownish, and immatures are brownish and white (instead of black and white), have dull facial skin, and lack the orange-yellow nasal knob and blue eye-ring.

The diet of this species consists of small benthic fish, crustaceans, polychaetes, gastropods and octopuses. They primarily feed on fish, especially Argentine anchoita,. Mean diving depth is almost 25 m (82 ft), and they have been filmed diving as deep as 60 m (200 ft) to forage on the sea floor. Most feeding takes place in inshore regions, but at least some populations will travel some distance from the shore to fish.