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Monday, January 17, 2011

MId-Air Catch, Ahinga

Anhinga's are amazing birds. They can swim underwater, stab a fish, then toss it,

and catch it, then it goes down the hatch. Here you can see the fish in it's bill, with the
fish tail still sticking out! One of the things I love about digital photography is that you can blow up your photo and see fantastic details about a bird.

Anhingas often climb out of the water, then they can spread their wings and dry them. They do this because their feathers are adapted to be more wettable than other birds, allowing the Anhinga to submege underwater. Don and I never tire of watching and enjoying all the birds, even the more common ones. Anhingas are easy to see here at Ding Darling NWR.



7 comments:

Dorothy said...

That's a wonderful capture! You were at the right place at the right time!

tess stieben said...

Its a wonderful experience to capture the flipped fish in air. I was lucky to capture a similar image of a Heron this past summer, its on my Sept 26 blog post if you care to view it.
Your 96 edition field guide for Western Region has become my favourite for identification. I became a birder through painting a memorial of my father which contained 9 birds. As I only paint from my own images I had to obtain bird shots, not realizing at that time that birding would become a passion.

Vincent Lucas said...

Gotta love those "snake birds"!

Hilke Breder said...

Amazing capture! I guess they have to toss the fish, so it'll go down head first.

Lillian Stokes said...

Hi Teresa,
So glad you have enjoyed our western field guide and nice story about how you became a birder. Thanks for sharing.
You should also check our our all new national guide, The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America, a completely up-to-date and most comprehensive photo field guide ever done. 854 species, 3,400 photos

Lillian Stokes said...

Hi Vince,
Yes, love the name snake birds for Anhinga and our friend just called them "periscope" birds.

Andy said...

What a great capture!