Cormorants in Human Culture
- Cormorants feature quite commonly in heraldry and medieval ornamentation, usually in their "wing-drying" pose, which was seen as representing the Christian cross. For example, the Norwegian municipalities of Røst, Loppa and Skjervøy have cormorants in their coat-of-arms. The species depicted in heraldry is most likely to be the Great Cormorant, the most familiar species in Europe.
- In the first speech of Love's Labour's Lost, King Ferdinand of Navarre says: "When, spite of cormorant devouring Time,/The endeavor of this present breath may buy/That honour which shall bate his scythe's keen edge/And make us heirs of all eternity."
- In 1853, a woman wearing a dress made of cormorant feathers was found on San Nicolas Island, off the southern coast of California. She had sewn the feather dress together using whale sinews. She is known as the Lone Woman of San Nicolas and was later baptized "Juana Maria" (her original name is lost). The woman had lived alone on the island for 18 years before being rescued.
- In addition to those mentioned above, the bird has inspired numerous writers, including Amy Clampitt, who wrote a poem called "The Cormorant in its Element". Which species she was referring to is not obvious, since all members of the family share the characteristic behavioural and morphological features that the poem celebrates. The combination of "slim head vermilion-strapped" and "big black feet" perhaps points at the Pelagic Cormorant, which is the only species occurring in the temperate U.S. with these features.
- The cormorant was the disguise used by Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost. The cormorant was significant as a symbol of "true Life/ Thereby regain’d," and was ironically used by Satan. Satan sat on top of the Tree of Life as a cormorant in his first attempt to deceive and tempt Eve.
- There is a cormorant portrayed in the first of the fictional paintings by Jane Eyre in Charlotte Bronte's novel, representing Blanche Ingram.
- The mythical Liver Bird symbol of Liverpool is commonly thought to be a cross between an eagle and a cormorant.
- The cormorant served as the hood ornament for the Packard automobile brand.
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