An Anhinga Eats Dinner!

Viera Wetlands, Florida April 29, 2019

It’s a big fish.

As Larry Jordan and I circled the Viera Wetlands, we watched a lone female anhinga. (In an earlier post I described my introduction to an anhinga – in that post my anhinga caught a very tiny fish. So tiny her catch was very hard to see. She consumed it in the water before returning to her perch. This time was different!)

Anhinga – A Very Strange Bird!

From the shore this anhinga knew she had the whole wetland to herself! We knew it was a female because of the brown neck; males have black necks. Larry and I watched a bit and then moved on.

A little later we passed her on a perch in the water. We were just in time to find her swallowing her dinner! A rather big dinner. An anhinga has to swallow the fish head first or else the fins and gills might catch in the anhinga’s throat with disastrous consequences.

After a meal this size, we expected her to dry her wings and return to shore. I was very happy with my image. So again we moved on.

But when we returned, she was swimming! I realized she was likely to catch another fish and return to her perch like before. I rushed to get my camera ready. She was out of the water and perched with her fish before I was focused and firing.

This time she had more to show me. This fish was too big to swallow easily. I have heard an anhinga may hit a fish against a rock, the ground, or even against a tree to soften it, making the fish easier to swallow. These options weren’t available – so I watched through my viewfinder as she softened it by twirling the fish around her bill.

(Click on the first image of the gallery. Once the first picture is up, you can watch the action by clicking (tapping) on the arrow that appears on the right edge. Click through the image set. Move forward and backward. Then you can click on the small [X] in the upper right corner to return to the main line blog.)

You saw the poor fish was having a very bad day! Poked, stabbed, pressed between the anhinga’s bill. That fish was going to be dinner.

But it got worse. After the first round the fish still wasn’t ready for swallowing so the anhinga continued for round two. (Again, click on the first image of the gallery … )