Family ANHINGIDAE Reichenbach, 1849

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Regional Maps

• Anhingidae Reichenbach, H.G.L. 1849. Die vollstiindigste Naturgeschichte des In-und Auslandes. Abt. II. Vögel, Band I. Avium systema naturale. Das natiirliche System der Vögel. Vorliiufer einer Iconographie der Arten der Vogel aller Welttheile. Dresden & Leipzig : Expeditionder vollstiindigsten Naturgeschichte pp.viii + 36 + xxxi pp. and 100 uncoloured plates. [Date published 1849-1850] [original spelling; Anhingidae Reichenbach, 1849 (1815) (Anhinga Brisson, 1760) conserved in preference to Plotinae Rafinesque, 1815 (Plotus Linnaeus, 1766 = Anhinga) [Art. 40(b)].

  Type genus:

   Anhinga Brisson, 1760.

  Secondary source:

   Bock, W.J. 1994. History and nomenclature of avian family-group names. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 222: 1-281 [131].
• Plottidia Rafinesque, C.S. 1815. Analyse de la nature, ou tableau de l'univers et des corps organises. Palermo (Italy) : Privately Published 224 pp. [Date published April to July] [72].

  Type genus:

   Plotus Linnaeus, 1766 [a junior synonym of Anhinga Brisson, 1760 prior to 1961. Originally placed within an expanded Phalacrocoracidae].

  Secondary source:

   Bock, W.J. 1994. History and nomenclature of avian family-group names. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 222: 1-281 [131].
• Plotinae Bonaparte, C.L. 1831. Saggio di una distribuzione metodica degli animali vertebrati. Giornale Arcadico di Scienze Lettere ed Arti 49: 3-77.

  Type genus:

   Plotus Linnaeus, 1766 [a junior synonym of Anhinga, Brisson 1760].

  Secondary source:

   Brodkorb, P. 1963. Catalogue of fossil birds. Part 1 (Archaeopterygiformes through Ardeiformes). Bulletin of the Florida State Museum. Biological Sciences 7: 179-293 [256].
• Anhingas Lesson, R.P. 1831. Traité d'Ornithologie, ou Tableau Méthodique des ordres, sous-ordres, familles, tribus, genres, sous-genres et races d'oiseaux. livr. 8. Paris : F.G. Levrault Vol. I xxxii + 659 pp. [598].

  Type genus:

   Anhinga Brisson, 1760.

  Secondary source:

   Tennyson, A.J.D. 2010. Order PELECANIFORMES: Pelicans, Gannets, Cormorants and Allies. pp.138-155 in Gill, B.G., Bell, B.D., Chambers, G.K., Medway, D.G., Palma, R.L., Scofield, R.P., Tennyson, A.J.D. & Worthy, T.H. Checklist of the birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica. Wellington : Te Papa Press 4th Edn, 500 pp. [153].
• Anhingidae Ridgway, R. 1887. A manual of North American birds. Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott Co. pp.xi+631. [73] [replacement name].

  Type genus:

   Anhinga Brisson, 1760.

  Secondary source:

   Brodkorb, P. 1963. Catalogue of fossil birds. Part 1 (Archaeopterygiformes through Ardeiformes). Bulletin of the Florida State Museum. Biological Sciences 7: 179-293 [256].
• Ptynginae Poche, F. 1904. Ein bisher nicht berücksichttigtes zoologisches Werk aus dem Jahre 1758, in dem die Grundsätze der binären Nomenklatur befolgt sind. Zoologischer Anzeiger 27: 495-510 [496] [Ptynginae Poche, 1904 is not available because it is based on Ptynx Möhring, 1752 which is unavailable as a pre-Linnaean name. Ptynx Mohring, 1752, being pre-Linnaean, does not predate Ptynx Blyth, 1840 = Strix Linnaeus, 1758].

  Type genus:

   Ptynx Möhring, 1752.

Introduction

Darters and anhingas are a group of four closely related living species. They are mainly tropical waterbirds inhabiting both fresh and brackish water of rivers, lakes, lagoons and swamps. All species have sexually dimorphic plumage; males are all black while females are principally paler bicoloured (black or dark brown with grey or white on the neck and underparts); the female is slightly larger. The scapulars and upper wing coverts of both have grey stippling. The plumage is not fully waterproof and they spend considerable time perched on limbs or logs with their wings spread and drying. Flight is often spent soaring in thermals and then, with apparently little wing movement, they move between wetlands.

All have a long and thin neck; this has a snake-like appearance as the eighth vertebra has a hinged arrangement particularly for darting lunges at prey. They swim with their bodies mostly or fully submerged with only their upper neck and head above water. To aid underwater swimming the tail feathers have a rippled arrangement. Like other members of their order anhingids have four toes which are totipalmate and these are associated with very short legs set well back on their body. During the year the iris alternates in colour from yellow, red or brown according to season.

Darters are piscivores, submerging and swimming swiftly underwater to stalk fish that are captured using a spearing action, assisted by the hinged neck vertebrae, to impale the prey. Vocalisations consist principally of a loud cackling cry lasting several seconds. They also produce clicking notes when flying or perching, and croaks, grunts or rattles at the nest.

Pairs mate through a temporary arrangement and during this bonding they twist together using their elongate necks. Displays also involve rapid bowing movements and wing waving. During the breeding season the bare skin colours change: the small gular sac changes from pink or yellow to black, and the facial skin from yellow or yellow-green to turquoise. Anhingid nests are organised in small dispersed colonies. These nests are constructed as flat stick platforms with shallow cups, and are built in trees overhanging water. Egg clutches range from three to six and are short-oval or oval and of a chalky white appearance; they become stained brownish from vegetation and faecal material. Both adults participate in incubation and care of the young, which are fed by regurgitation. The young are altricial but quickly assume a white or tan downy plumage.

General References

Christidis, L. & Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 288 pp.

History of changes