The Pygmy Cormorant is the smallest of the three European cormorants. Pygmy Cormorant is a species of warm climates, mainly restricted to lowland freshwater and brackish habitats. It has been recorded in: open water with sizeable trees in the proximity; fresh or brackish marshes with thick reedbeds; open water or slow-flowing fresh water, including oxbows, backwaters, ricefields, swamps and flooded fields where fish can be easily caught in shallow water; densely vegetated areas with trees, bushes and even small floating islets of dead plants. Pair-bonding activity takes place in the wintering areas, and eggs are eventually laid between the end of March and early July. Pygmy Cormorants breed in colonies, often with other species (cormorants, herons, Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia, Glossy Ibis Plegadis falcinellus, etc.). Nests are in dense trees or bushes on medium to high branches or in thick reedbeds 1-1.5 m above water-level. The species breeds in south-east Europe (east from Italy), Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzebekistan, and winters primarily in Albania, Greece, the Balkan states, Turkey, Cyprus, Iraq, Iran, Azerbaijan and also Israel, Bulgaria, Romania and Syria.