Urile

Urile
Pelagic cormorant, U. pelagicus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Suliformes
Family:	Phalacrocoracidae
Genus:	Urile Bonaparte, 1855
Type species
Urile urile
Species
Urile penicillatus Urile urile Urile pelagicus †Urile perspicillatus

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.

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 Phalacrocorax, and reclassified them in the distinct genus Urile.^[1] The IOC followed this classification in 2021.^[2] Urile is thought to have split from Phalacrocorax 8.9 - 10.3 million years ago.^[1]

List of species[]

Image	Scientific name	Common Name	Distribution
	Urile penicillatus	Brandt's cormorant	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
	Urile urile	Red-faced cormorant	coastlines of North Pacific Ocean of both Asia and North America, from Hokkaido east to the Gulf of Alaska
	Urile pelagicus	Pelagic cormorant	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
	†Urile perspicillatus	Spectacled cormorant	(formerly) Bering Island, Russia; potentially other islands in the Commander Islands, as well as the parts of the adjacent Kamchatka Peninsula. Now extinct.

References[]