Close up; Anhinga

Anhinga is the American name of what in Swedish is called "Amerikansk ormhalsfågel" which in translation should be something like "American snake-neck-bird". The Swedish name is a quite good description of how you would see this bird when on the hunt. But Anhinga sounds a little more exotic and has probably some good explanation :-)


It is fascinating to see how it slowly puts it head and neck up of the water and then twists and bends it without one can see its body or any other movement in the water.
The Anhinga is a relative to cormorant, at least I think so,  they look alike, they also swims under water to catch fish. Both species also sits on branches to dry out their wings in the sun.



I did note one thing that is different and that is their method of catching the fish. While the Cormorant uses the hook at the end of its beak to hold the fish, the Anhinga penetrates the fish like a spear with its pointy beak.  It would be interesting to know how or rather why such an evolution occurred.


This method isn't without problems. How do you get the fish off the "spear" and in the mouth without using hands? Well it will take some fiddling or shake, rattle and roll as some one might put it :-) The risk of loosing the fish in to the water is obvious.


Well since evolution never accepts a faulty design and the Anhinga looks to thriving, I am sure they now how to manage that small problem :-)



And if they would drop the fish there is probably no worries. The fish is certainly dead or heavily wounded so it is easy to get in the water and pick it up again.
But in some situations complications may arise anyway...