Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Darter

Anhinga melanogaster

Description:

The Darter is a large slender water bird with a long snake-like neck and sharp pointed bill. Male Darters are dark brownish black with chestnut brown under parts. The wings are glossy black on top, streaked and spotted white and silver. There is a white stripe from the bill to extending across each side of the face and down upper part of the neck. Females and immatures are grey-brown above and pale grey or white below. Immatures have less prominent neck stripe. The Darter often swims with only the snake-like neck showing above the water. It is similar in appearance to the cormorants but has much longer neck and more pointed bill.

Habitat:

Wetlands and sheltered coastal waters, mainly in the Tropics and Subtropics. Prefers waters with perching places such as tree trunks or stumps where it rests and dries its wings. Common on inland waters as well as calm coastal waters.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

No Comments

LeanneGardner
Spotted by
LeanneGardner

Mackay, Queensland, Australia

Spotted on Oct 10, 2012
Submitted on Oct 15, 2012

Related Spottings

Anhinga Anhinga Anhinga Anhinga

Nearby Spottings

Fiddler Crab Common Australian Ghost Crab Orange-clawed Fiddler Crab Cicada
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team