Anhinga

Anhinga at Ding Darling

Anhinga Anhinga anhinga (Snakebird)

Anhinga belongs to the Anhingidae family. 


The anhinga has a long neck and tail which are used in swimming. They poke their head out of the water. The birds spends most of the day with its wings open so they are able to dry.  
They feed by looking for fish during swimming, they tend to sit and wait for the fish to come past them. When a fish does eventually come past the bill stabs at the fish very quickly to ensure the catch, they use the mandibles to stab and keep hold of the fish.The neck has evolved to allow this fast movement. The anhinga likes to feed on small fish for example mullet, sucker, pickerel, insects, crustaceans baby turtles and alligators. 

They nest in twos but in colonies with other birds for example ibis and heron. The male finds and decides on the nest location and this is where courtship displays occur, the males would flap their wings, raise the tail and point the bill to the sky and back down again. Once the male has attracted a female, the nest building must begin and this is done by the female and the male with leaves and sticks.  The female will lay between two and five eggs, the eggs need to be watch and incubated for twenty nine days. Once the eggs have hatched both parents take on the roll of feeding for around two weeks. If the chicks are anxious they would flee the nest into the water, but they are able to climb back into the nest using their bill and feet as they are unable to fly.

The anhinga are found around slow moving water, either in the water looking for fish or sat on a branch over looking the water. They are nearly always found around salt water but during the nesting season they are found by freshwater. 

Allaboutbirds.org, (2015). Anhinga. [online] Available at: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Anhinga/lifehistory [Accessed 13 Apr. 2015].

Audubon, (2014). Anhinga. [online] Available at: http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/anhinga [Accessed 13 Apr. 2015].