Slideshow: The Anhinga at Brazos Bend State Park
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The last several walks along the lakes at Brazos Bend State Park have called my attention to a large, strange, and creepily beautiful water bird, the Anhinga. Even its name, “anhinga”, is erie and means “devil bird” or “snake bird” in a Brazilian native language.
It can most often be seen perched on a tree, post, or pier with its wings outstretched and sunning itself. Because the anhinga does not have oil glands for waterproofing its feathers like other water birds, its feathers become wet and waterlogged when it goes swimming and hunting. The lack of oily/waterproof feathers helps it dive and chase fish underwater as well as allows it to stay under water for extended lengths of time. Other birds would be too buoyant to dive and remain under water like the anhinga. After hunting submerged, the anhinga has to come out of the water and spread out it wings to dry in the sun and to help return its body temperature to normal.
The adults have beautiful grayish-black feathers with a greenish shine with silver-white feathers on the top side. It’s long fan shaped tail contributes to one of the anhinga’s nicknames, the water turkey. It’s easy to distinguish the females with the lighter color neck and chest feathers.
The anhinga is also known as the snakebird because when it swims, its entire body is submerged under the water with only its head and neck either flat on the surface of the water or gliding through the water appearing like a snake.
On my walk along 40 Acre Lake, I was fortunate to be near a male hunting and caught images of him swimming and catching a bass or trout. Anhingas spear their prey with their pointed beak like an arrow. In this case he had speared it so deeply it was having difficulty prying the fish off his beak. He eventually got it off, but nearly lost it in the process.
Their dark monochromatic color and outstretched wings make them seem a little creepy and even though they appear occupied either hunting or preening, they always seem to have a wary eye on YOU. They don’t seem especially fearful either and after drying off for a quite a while on the other side of the lake, this male flew within a few yards of me to finish drying off when I had my back turned photographing some purple gallinules behind me in the marsh. I was quite startled when I turned back around and he was right there less than 10 meters away crest flared and with an eye dead on me.
Its relative large numbers, accessibility, and beauty have really made the anhinga one of my favorite birds at Brazos Bend State Park.
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Gallery: The Anhinga at Brazos Bend State Park
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