This small southern African coastal cormorant forages for benthic prey in inshore kelp beds.
Breeding adults are glossy black with a short frontal crest and short white facial filoplumes. The eyes are ruby red; non-breeding adults are paler and browner. The shoulder feathers and upperwing coverts are glossy grey-brown with blackish margins. The bill is black with a yellow-orange gape.
It forages benthically in inshore kelp beds, mainly taking small fish as well as crustaceans, molluscs, and polychaete worms.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.