| Darter Anhinga melanogaster |
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Mildura, Victoria, Australia March 2006 The Darter is distributed in Africa south of the Sahara, India, south-east Asia and Australia. The sub-species A. m. novaehollandiae is the one found in Australia and New Guinea. It prefers shallow inland lakes and slow-moving rivers but is also to be seen in estuaries and coastal lagoons. |
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The male, seen here, is black with a white streak on the neck. It has white plumes on the wings and chestnut on the front of the neck. This is particularly noticeable in breeding plumage and can be seen in photo 1. The female has a grey head and a whitish breast and foreneck. |
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It feeds mainly on fish which it spears underwater. To help it dive for longish periods the feathers are not waterproof so you often see it swimming low in the water with only its head protruding. This leads to its alternative name of "Snake-bird". The drawback to this is that it has to spend time perched with outstretched wings to dry off its plumage. | |||
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