Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Suliformes > Anhingidae > Anhinga > Anhinga melanogaster

Anhinga melanogaster (Darter)

Wikipedia Abstract

The Oriental darter or Indian darter (Anhinga melanogaster) is a water bird of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. It has a long and slender neck with a straight, pointed bill and, like the cormorant, it hunts for fish while its body submerged is in water. It spears a fish underwater, bringing it above the surface, tossing and juggling it before swallowing the fish head first. The body remains submerged as it swims, and the slender neck alone is visible above the water, which accounts for the colloquial name of snakebird. Like the cormorants, it has wettable feathers and it is often found perched on a rock or branch with its wings held open to dry.
View Wikipedia Record: Anhinga melanogaster

Infraspecies

Anhinga melanogaster melanogaster
Anhinga melanogaster vulsini

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
10
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
46
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 20.503
EDGE Score: 3.76134
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  3.391 lbs (1.538 kg)
Birth Weight [2]  36 grams
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Piscivore
Diet - Ectothermic [3]  20 %
Diet - Fish [3]  60 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  20 %
Forages - Underwater [3]  100 %
Clutch Size [5]  4
Fledging [1]  53 days
Incubation [4]  28 days
Mating System [2]  Monogamy
Maximum Longevity [6]  16 years
Wing Span [4]  4.002 feet (1.22 m)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Important Bird Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Prey / Diet

Mogurnda mogurnda (Northern trout gudgeon)[7]
Porochilus rendahli (Rendahl's catfish)[7]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 5Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 6de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 7Food of the Darter Anhinga melanogaster in the Alligator Rivers Region, Northern Territory, P.L. DOSTINE & S.R. MORTON, Emu 89.53-54 (1988)
♦ 8Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0