Anhingas are birds found in warm areas of North and South America. These fish-eaters have a unique way of capturing their meals – they swim in rather shallow water and spear swimming fish. Then they emerge at the surface and flip the fish into the air in order to catch it head first. If successful, they then swallow the fish. If unsuccessful, they try again. Natives in South America saw them do this and believed that the Anhinga was “playing” with the fish and in their language the Anhinga was known as the “Devil Bird”. The name “Anhinga” apparently comes from the Tupi Indian language. Other natives saw the Anhinga swimming with only its head and long neck out of the water and thought it was a snake – hence their name for it was the equivalent of “Snake Bird”.
Females have a brown head and neck with a clearly defined border between the neck and breast. Males have a black head, neck, and body. Both sexes have white “piano-key-like markings on the wings.
Anhingas are limited to warmer areas of the Americas. Cold weather would not allow them to dry off and warm up after capturing fish. Anhingas are intimately associated with relatively shallow open water. Exotic plants covering water surfaces make capturing fish more difficult.
Molting of wing feathers is unusual in Anhingas in that all wing feathers are molted and replaced at once – leaving them intimately linked with their aquatic world. During molt, they roost in trees immediately adjacent to the water and must climb (like an awkward woodpecker) – up the tree to a safe roost. Their roost site is often over water so that they can simply drop into the water to safety if needed.