My Trail - The Anhinga Trail

                                                                           

Date: 6/7/17

Location: Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, FL

My Trail - The Anhinga Trail

By: Arthur the Male Anhinga  

'Come at me bro.'

My name is Arthur the Anhinga and I live in the Floridian Everglades along the flowing rivers where there is plenty of fish for me to eat. Aside from the name Anhinga I am also sometimes called the snakebird due to my long neck. Park rangers and park researchers also call me Anhinga anhinga - I guess I'm just that amazing to be called my name twice!

 I currently reside in the Anhinga Trail but I heard that others also live in places such as Cuba, Mexico and South America. Not only that but I also live with my friends in small nesting colonies consisting of males, females and juveniles. You can tell females and males apart, though. Males will consist of dark black feathers with a greenish gloss with the occasional white patches on our wings. Females have a lot more white to pale gray on them - but we both share the common features of short legs with webbed feet, long wings with silver patches on them, a long bill and our snakelike necks.

These features, though, make us ideal hunters. Aside from our physical features we are also less buoyant than many other species of birds found here in the Everglades so we can stay under the water easier and for longer periods of time. When it is finally time to hunt I often go out in flocks with my friends from the colony. After locating a good spot we roost and wait for the perfect moment to dive into the water. When I find that perfect moment I use my long snake like neck and pointed beak to spear fish out of the water once I dive in. I also have to make sure I spear the fish in the side to flip it up into my mouth to swallow correctly! 

'I see you taking that picture of me.'

The only issue is that my friends and I aren't waterproof like those ducks I see from time to time. I heard researchers say it was because I lack something called a uropygial gland which produces the oils to make the feathers water resistant. So every time I go diving I have to go spread my wings out and dry out before I am able to fly back home else I'll end up as gator food for the day - yikes!

I apologize to my readers that I'm cutting this short as it looks like I'm finally done drying off myself now from my latest dive. It's time to head back home to the colony, so until next dive!