Nannopterum

American cormorants
Double-crested cormorant (N. auritum)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Suliformes
Family:	Phalacrocoracidae
Genus:	Nannopterum Sharpe, 1899
Type species
Phalacrocorax harrisi
Species
N. harrisi N. brasilianum N. auritum
Synonyms
Nesocarbo

Nannopterum is a genus of cormorant comprising three species. They are found throughout the Americas, hence the common name American cormorants.

Members of this genus were formerly classified within the genus Phalacrocorax, but a 2014 study found the members of this clade to represent a sister genus to Leucocarbo and reclassified them in the genus Nannopterum. The IOC followed this classification in 2021. It is thought to have split from Leucocarbo between 6.7 - 8.0 million years ago.

Nannopterum directly translates to "small-winged"; this name was originally coined as a monotypic genus name for the flightless cormorant (N. harrisi), which does indeed have small wings. Recent studies have also found the neotropic (N. brasilianum) and double-crested (N. auritum) cormorants to form a clade with the flightless cormorant, thus placing them in the genus Nannopterum despite both species having normal-sized wings and full flight capabilities.

List of species

Image	Scientific name	Common Name	Distribution
	Nannopterum harrisi	Flightless cormorant	Fernandina and Isabela Islands in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
	Nannopterum brasilianum	Neotropic cormorant	Resident from Tierra Del Fuego north to all of South America, Central America, and Mexico to the Gulf Coast of Texas, along with the southern tip of Baja California, Cuba, and Great Inagua island. Breeding range extends north to most of east-central Texas and central Arizona & New Mexico. Nonbreeding range extends to most of Bahamas.
	Nannopterum auritum	Double-crested cormorant	Throughout North America, from Alaska to all of Canada and the United States, south to the Yucatán Peninsula, the Bahamas and Cuba