water turkey or anhinga
Conservation Status:
Scientific Clssification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Pelecaniformes
Family: Anhingidae
Genus: Anhinga
Species: A. anhinga
Characteristics:
Length: 32 inches
3 to 5 eggs per year
Incubation Period: 4 weeks
The water turkey is an excellent diver. But it must dry its feathers after each dip because they are not waterproof. This is why these birds appear on rocks or stumps, wings outspread and drying off.
There are water turkeys near the lakes and rivers of most tropical countries, but the species differ slightly from Africa, to the tropics of America, Australia, and southeast Asia. They are large birds which somewhat resemble cormorants, but the water turkey's tail is larger, its beak straight and pointed, and its neck much longer.
When they swim on the water's surface, only their neck shows above the water because they are so heavy for their size. (They don't have air pockets under their skin.) They fish by diving and harpooning their catch with a quick jab of the beak. Their long, s-shaped necks give them speed. They are voracious and will eat, if need be, amphibians and insects.
Water turkeys nest in small colonies. Their nests are made of interwoven branches and covered with a carpet of dead leaves. These nests are placed high in trees at the edge of a body of water. At two weeks, the young are able to dive or swim away from danger. If then they can't get back to the nest, their parents feed them wherever they've managed to land.
