It is found mainly along the inland waters of the Indian Subcontinent but extends west to Sind and east to Thailand and Cambodia.

It is a gregarious species that can be easily distinguished from the similar sized little cormorant by its blue eyes, small head with a sloping forehead and a long narrow bill ending in a hooked tip.

The Indian cormorant was formally described in 1826 by English naturalist James Francis Stephens and given the current binomial name Phalacrocorax fuscicollis.

[5] This medium-sized bronze brown cormorant is scalloped in black on the upper plumage, lacks a crest and has a small and slightly peaked head with a long narrow bill that ends in a hooked tip.

[6] This cormorant fishes gregariously in inland rivers or large wetlands of peninsular India and the northern part of Sri Lanka.