Anhinga anhinga

• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Biology
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Click on the language to view common names.

Description

Family Anhingidae

Large birds with long, thin necks, which gives them a snake-like appearance when swimming. Darters or Snake-birds have sharply pointed bills with serrated edges , completely webbed feet, and short legs set far back on their bodies. Their plumage absorbs water, allowing them to swim under water with ease, but requiring drying time between swims.

Physical Description

Habitat

Anhingas are most commonly found in freshwater swamps , sloughs , marshes, and ponds . Phosphate mines are heavily used as nesting and feeding sites. In cities and towns, breeding colonies are located on islands in the center of small lakes surrounded by development. Anhingas are less frequently found in brackish and saltwater habitats ; however, they will occasionally nest on mangrove islands.

Typically found in the intertidal zone at the water's edge at a mean distance from sea level of -7 meters (-21 feet).[1]

Ecology: List of Habitats : 5.1 Wetlands (inland) - Permanent Rivers/Streams/Creeks (includes waterfalls ) 5.5 Wetlands (inland) - Permanent Freshwater Lakes (over 8ha)

Biology

Diet

The food of the Anhinga is almost exclusively fish that the bird spears with its bill, although a few insects, young cayman, turtles, snakes , and crustaceans are sometimes taken.

Reproduction

Nesting often occurs during March and April, but earlier egg-laying dates have been established in south Florida. Fall observations of eggs and nestlings have been confirmed as late as December (Stevenson and Anderson 1994).

Anhingas breed in colonies, usually ranging from 6 to 10 pairs but sometimes containing 100 or more nests . Nests are frequently placed within large mixed-species colonies of herons, egrets, and cormorants. The nests are built of twigs and moss and are lined with leaves and small twigs. They may be found at almost any height , from 1.5 to 30 m (5 to 100 ft ) above the ground . Three to 5 white to pale blue eggs, covered with a chalky deposit, comprise a clutch . The eggs take 25 to 28 days to hatch . The young birds remain in or near the nest until they are fully grown and capable of flight, but the age of the young at fledging is not known (Ehrlich et al. 1988).

It breeds in lowlands from Sinaloa, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and east to North Carolina, then south to Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Uruguay (Stevenson and Anderson 1994). The Anhinga is a resident breeder throughout much of Florida. Breeding range extends from the tropics north along the eastern US coast to North Carolina. Anhingas are very common in Florida and uncommon in coastal NC.

Migration

Most do not migrate. Most reports of migration are of Florida-bound birds sighted in October.

Taxonomy

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 17-Oct-2001.

Similar Species

Neotropic Cormorant, Double-Crested Cormorant

Members of the genus Anhinga

There are approximately 23 species in this genus:

A. anhinga (American Anhinga) · A. anhinga anhinga (Anhinga) · A. anhinga leucogaster (Anhinga) · A. fraileyi · A. grandis · A. hadarensis · A. laticeps · A. melanogaster (Oriental Darter) · A. melanogaster melanogaster (Oriental Darter) · A. melanogaster novaehollandiae · A. melanogaster rufa · A. melanogaster vulsini (Madagascar Darter) · A. minuta · A. novaehollandiae (Australasian Darter) · A. pannonica · A. pennonica · A. rufa (African Darter) · A. rufa chantrei · A. rufa melanogaster · A. rufa rufa (African Darter) · A. rufa vulsini · A. subvolans · A. vulsini

More Info

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Further Reading

• A checklist of the vertebrate animals of Kansas / George D. Potts, Joseph T. Collins. [Lawrence, Kan.]: Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, 1991. ENG url p. 6.
• A contribution to the ornithology of northeastern Brazil, by Charles E. Hellmayr. Chicago, 1929. ENG url p. 500.
• A hand-list of British birds, with an account of the distribution of each species in the British Isles and abroad. By Ernst Hartert, F. C. R. Jourdain, N. F. Ticehurst and H. F. Withersby. London, Witherby, 1912. ENG url p. 149, p. 220.
• A popular handbook of the birds of the United States and Canada, by Thomas Nuttall. Boston, Little, Brown, 1903. ENG url p. 417.
• Alsop, Fred J. III. Birds of North America - Eastern Region. First American Edition. Smithsonian Handbooks. DK Publishing, Inc. 2001.
• Alsop, Fred J. III. Smithsonian Birds of North America. London and New York: DK Publishing, 2001.
• Annals of the Carnegie Museum. [Pittsburgh]: Published by authority of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Institute, 1901- ENG url p. 131, p. 158, p. 171, p. 548, p. 584, p. 60.
• Annotated checklist of bird and mammal species of Cocha Cashu Biological Station, Manu National Park, Peru / John W. Terborgh, John W. Fitzpatrick, Louise Emmons. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History, 1984. ENG url p. 15.
• Annual report / Field Museum of Natural History. [Chicago]: The Museum, [1965-1966] ENG url p. 20.
• Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, -1965. ENG url p. 100, p. 113, p. 113, p. 147, p. 194, p. 65, p. 75, p. 76, p. 90, p. 93, p. 96.
• Banks, R. C., R. W. McDiarmid, A. L. Gardner, and W. C. Starnes 2003. Checklist of Vertebrates of the United States, the U.S. Territories, and Canada.
• Bird-lore. New York, National Association of Audubon Societies. ENG url p. 236, p. 56.
• BirdLife International. 2000. Threatened Birds of the World. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, U.K.
• BirdLife International. 2004 Threatened Birds of the World 2004. CD-ROM. BirdLife International, Cambridge, U.K.
• Birds in Kansas / Max C. Thompson and Charles Ely. Lawrence, Kan.: University of Kansas, Museum of Natural History: c1989- ENG url p. 30, p. 395.
• Birds of America; editor-in-chief, T. Gilbert Pearson; consulting editor, John Burroughs; artists, R.I. Brasher, R. Bruce Horsfall [and] Henry Thurston. New York, The University Society, 1923. ENG url p. 93.
• Birds of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains; a manual for the identification of species in hand or in the bush, by Austin C. Apgar. New York, American book company[c1898] ENG url p. 311, p. 397.
• Birds: their photographs and home life / by A. H. Cordier with 145 illustrations from photographs of wild birds, by the author. Philadelphia: Dorrance, c1923. ENG url p. 65.
• Bulletin - United States National Museum. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, [etc.];1877-1971. ENG url p. 229, p. 337, p. 395, p. 415, p. 435, p. 438, p. 54.
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• Bulletin, Gulf Biologic Station, Baton Rouge, Louisiana State Board of Agriculture and Immigration., 1902-1910. ENG url p. 80.
• Catalogue of birds of the Americas and the adjacent islands in Field Museum of Natural History. Charles E. Hellmayr, Boardman Conover. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History, 1948. ENG url p. 159, p. 160.
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• Check-list of North American birds / prepared by a committee of the American ornithologists' union. Lancaster, Pa.: The Union, 1931. ENG url p. 24, p. 412.
• Check-list of North American birds: according to the canons of nomenclature of the American Ornithologists' Union. [s.l.]: The Union, 1889. ENG url p. 13.
• Color key to North American birds, by Frank M. Chapman with upward of 800 drawings by Chester A. Reed, B. S. New York, Doubleday, Page and company, 1903. ENG url p. 261.
• Contents and index to volume 12, numbers 1 to 19, Zoological series / Wilfred H. Osgood. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History, 1929. ENG url p. 504.
• Del Hoyo, Josep, A. Elliott, and J. Sargatal, eds. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 1, Ostrich to Ducks. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions, 1992.
• Ectoparasites of Panama. Rupert L. Wenzel [and] Vernon J. Tipton, editors. Chicago, Field Museum of Natural History, 1966. ENG url p. 250, p. 258, p. 799, p. 827.
• Ehrlich, P., Dobkin, D., and Wheye, D. (1988). The Birders Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds. New York: Simon and Schuster Inc. (info on clutch size, length of incubation, days to fledge and number of broods.)
• Faune de France. [t.] 1-68. Paris, 1921-66. FRE url p. 255.
• Fishes of the western North Atlantic. Editorial board: editor-in-chief John Tee-Van [and others] New Haven, Sears Foundation for Marine Research, Yale Univ., 1948- ENG url p. 609.
• General function of the gall bladder from the evolutionary standpoint, by Frank W. Gorham and Andrew Conway Ivy. Chicago, 1938. ENG url p. 182.
• Handbook of birds of the western United States, including the great plains, great basin, Pacific slope, and lower Rio Grande valley, by Florence Merriam Bailey, with thirty-three full-page plates by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and over six hundred cuts in the Boston, Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1904. ENG url p. 39.
• Harrison, Peter. Seabirds, An Identification Guide. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983.
• History of the birds of Kansas. By N. S. Goss. Illustrating 529 birds. Topeka, Kan., G. W. Crane, 1891. ENG url p. 37.
• Johnsgard, Paul. Cormorants, Darters, and Pelicans of the World. Washington, DC and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993.
• Kaufman, Kenn. Lives of North American Birds. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996.
• Life histories of North American petrels and pelicans and their allies; order Tubinares and order Steganopodes, by Arthur Cleveland Bent. Washington, Govt. print. off., 1922. ENG url p. 229, p. 337.
• Memoirs of the Nuttall Ornithological Club. Cambridge, Mass.: The Club, 1886- ENG url p. 133, p. 26.
• Memoirs of the San Diego Society of Natural History. San Diego, Calif.: The Society, 1931- ENG url p. 246, p. 267, p. 33.
• Michigan bird life: a list of all the bird species known to occur in the State together with an outline of their classification and an account of the life history of each species, with special reference to its relation t by Walter Bradford Barrows. Lansing: Michigan Agricultural College, 1912. ENG url p. 739.
• Miscellaneous publication - University of Kansas, Museum of Natural History. Lawrence, University of Kansas, 1946-1996. ENG url p. 8.
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Notes

Contributors

• BirdLife International 2004. In IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCNRedList.org. Downloaded July 18, 2008.
• Bisby, F.A., Y.R. Roskov, M.A. Ruggiero, T.M. Orrell, L.E. Paglinawan, P.W. Brewer, N. Bailly, J. van Hertum, eds (2007). Species 2000 and ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2007 Annual Checklist. Species 2000: Reading, U.K.
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed December 09, 2007. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 12 providers.
• Peterson, Alan P. Zoological Nomenclature Resource. Accessed June 19, 2009.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal December 09, 2007:

• Avian Knowledge Network, eBird
• Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility, Provincial Museum of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada. Birds
• Marine Science Institute, UCSB, Paleobiology Database
• New Brunswick Museum, NBM birds
• UNIBIO, IBUNAM, CNAV/Coleccion Nacional de Aves
• University of Michigan Museum of Zoology
• , Bird specimens

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 3851697
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: ITS-174757
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 13729682
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 174755
• IUCN ID: 49544
• Natural Heritage Network Species Identifier: ABNFE01010
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 178001

Footnotes

1. Standard Deviation = 123.530 based on 20,000 observations. Terrestrial altitude and ocean depth information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]

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