I almost always carry my camera with me. Tonight I caught this anhinga drying her feathers after a swim at a local pond. The female does not have as dramatic coloring as the male but she is still lovely to watch as she dries.
(common names: water turkey or snake bird – Scientific name: Anhinga anhinga)
I carried my Canon camera with me this morning when Max and I walked, and I managed to get two new photos of the Anhinga birds on the nearby ponds. The male was sitting as usual in his tree by his pond, and the female was sitting as usual on the side of her pond. She had obviously already been fishing since she was drying her wings. She seems to have developed a few new feathers on the back of her head since September and she seems to be a little darker on the back of her neck. I thought for a while that she might be a juvenile male, but she has identical coloration to a photo on the iBird South app on my iPhone that is labeled female Anhinga, so that settles that.
Anhinga Male
Anhinga Female
American Anhinga Male
American Anhinga female
The male and female water turkeys (Anhinga anhinga) are easy to spot during the day with their wings stretched out drying their feathers. According to iBird Explorer South, the anhinga do not have oil glands for waterproofing feathers, so they must spread their wings to dry them when they are wet. Supposedly they swim mostly submerged with their long snakelike head out of the water, but we haven’t observed them swimming. The darker male seems to claim one pond and the lighter colored female claims a nearby pond. When the male calls, a low throaty sound, he displays a flexible red throat. I thought they were nicknamed “water turkey” due to the red throat, but the name comes from the long tail that resembles a turkey tail.
We have nicknamed the female, the preacher. She is often seen standing on the side of the pond spreading her wings dramatically before a congregation of ducks and turtles. We look for her when we pass the pond and miss her when she is not there. The male is more likely seen sitting on low branches overhanging the pond or on the wires over the pond. I have mistaken the male for a hawk because he soars hawklike, high in the sky. They have been here since the summer, so they must be year-round residents of Florida and of the ‘hood.
