My Favorite Bird

We all have favorite animals. My main favorites are rodents and marsupials, as you probably guessed from my rat mascot, but I also have a favorite bird I wanted to tell you about in case you never heard of it or had a chance to experience its awesomeness and beauty.

When I was a kid, my favorite birds were hawks and falcons. I actually nicknamed myself Hawk for a while during grade school because of how cool I thought the birds were. I also read the Animorphs book series during this time and was infatuated by the idea of kids being able to turn into animals, especially the boy who had the ability to become a falcon and fly wherever he wanted.

Steve Miller's song "Fly Like an Eagle" was something I was a big fan of too for this very reason. I'd be swinging on the swing set for the entirety of every recess and hearing that song play in my head as I imagined myself taking flight, my imagination soaring the entire time.

I envied those birds of prey and their limitless freedom in my youth and considered them my favorites of the avian kingdom. That is, until I encountered an anhinga.

The anhinga is also known as the darter, the snakebird, and the water turkey. It has a long, snakelike neck and sharp javelin of a beak that it uses to catch fish with. This bird eats by dipping its head into water and spearing its beak through the bodies of fish, then it tosses them into the air and devours them whole and dips its beak back in the water to rinse the blood from it.

Due to anhingas not having oil glands to make their feathers waterproof like most aquatic birds, it has to dry itself off after swimming and fishing for food, so it'll stand on a branch or grass and raise its feathers into the air and hold them up like that, allowing the sun to warm its body and dry it off so it can fully regain its flight capability.

This video I found on YouTube demonstrates an anhinga drying its feathers and fishing for food. It's the first bird shown in the first half of the video.

In 2013 while I still lived in Ohio, I went to a park with a friend who was fly-fishing and there happened to be a pair of anhingas on the grass drying their feathers. I was instantly amazed at the sight and wondered why these big birds were just standing there with their wings up. I researched it, and on that day, discovered my new favorite bird.

Anhingas look really cool when they're in flight due to their colors, and they also have a neat courtship display they perform where they peck at each others beaks and wrap their long necks together affectionately. This leads to the male bird gathering the supplies to start a nest, and the female anhinga will finish building it to prepare for her eggs.

Here's a video I found of a courtship display.

When I moved down south, I was really happy to learn that anhingas are common sights to see if you go far enough down in my new home state. I plan on making a trip to a location they're known to frequent at some point so I can see them again and relive the joy and amazement I experienced 10 years ago.