A Handsome Devil and Friends

Not much to report in the non-birding realm. Managed to tweak my back this week giving me some unwanted rest days, but fingers crossed I was able to run the rest of that weak sauce out of me in today’s run. What’s the saying .. “The beatings will continue until the pain subsides!“. Beyond that, we pack up the RV this weekend and head for the Poodle Nationals at Purina Farms (Gray Summit, MO) next week where they boys will be matching agility skills with other Poodles across the nation (actually international as well). Ruger has double duty as he’ll be competing in FastCAT (100yd dash) and should get a major title for his efforts if we calculated all the potential points correctly. I also get to have a little fun with some birding at one of my favorite spots – Shaw Nature Preserve. Let’s hope the migration is kicking in down there as it is dismal up here.

I am going to pick up where I left off as we were celebrating the breeding season for Birds – thankfully not Rabbits or we’d be here practically the entire year ha. Going to give you an extra bonus this post, but for now, let’s start with this handsome “devil”.

Hit the jump to read more about this flying cross, oh, and for the bonus content!

Unlike the previous two entries in this series, the Tricolored Heron (link here) and the (Reddish Egret), the Anhinga (or devil bird) does not really go through a major transformation when the breeding season. They are pretty much out to woo the ladies every day of the year with their dapper tuxedo and opal eyes.

They are so vain (link here – actually Taime’s is better – link here and yes it has a Poodle in the video ). They can be often seen showing off their snazzy looking digs around the water’s edge – don’t look now, but there are probably “Clouds in [your] coffee“.

Okay, okay, our boring Legal Department insists that I note the real reason they are often seen with their wings out – a glorious interpretation of Jesus Christ speaking to his flock, no?, a tribute to Cyrus as he gives his call for the gangs of New York to come together as “The future is ours“, no? Fine, but let it be known that our lawyers are in need of a grass touch. Anhingas lack the oils to make their feathers waterproof so manual drying is required, but that does give them the advantage for stealthy submersion in water.

Note, Anhingas tend to remind me a lot of Owls in the sense I don’t think their neck is actually attached to anything – the shot above is a full on backwards look at their fancy lined tails.

So, if they really don’t change their looks that much for breeding, how is this an entry in this particular series…well, look to the bottom left.

These Anhingas were literally in the midst of their breeding season. This is another series of shots taken at the rookery in High Island, TX back in late March 2024. This place was full of different bird species like the Great Egret (link here and here), Snowy Egrets, Tricolored Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, etc., but this was the only nesting Anhingas that we noticed in the area. I have to say, they picked a primo spot with an unobstructed window view to the lake.

From a nesting behavior, Cornell describes the male as the one who picks the location and initiates construction, brings in all the materials and then turns over the final design and furnishing to the female. I was unable to confirm from that site whether the males and females generally share nest sitting responsibilities, however, from my own observations, this seems to be the case as we returned later in the day and noticed that the pair had exchanged positions – you know what they say, couples that share the nest duties tend to bicker a lot – kidding, I’m sure the male does “everything right” hehehe. They have one brood a year with clutch sizes in the 2 to 5 range. Around 28 days after plopping those pointy eggs out there are completely naked, wide-eyed chickies all with their wings pointed directly at their open mouths with little placards that say “FILL THIS CAVITY“.

Apologies as I was unable to get any shots of their pale blue eggs – there were reports they were underneath all those feathers, but multiple attempts to tin them came up empty again – sorry. As compensation, I did manage to get a video of the largest flock of Anhingas I have ever seen riding the thermals at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge a few days before we made our way to High Island.

That was pretty amazing seeing all those flying crosses circling overhead.

It’s bonus time! Based on some quick calculations it is looking like I might run out of days before I get to some of the planned breeding collections, so adding in these shots of the nesting Neotropic Cormorants we saw in a set of trees to the right of the Anhingas. It appeared the Cormorants, Little Blue Herons and the Snowy Egrets had opted for a set of trees away from the larger inhabitants at the rookery.

They were also in more sparse looking trees which may be a general preference for these slightly smaller residents. It certainly looked a lot easier to get in and out of the nest area with some of the Neotropics selecting the very visible top of the trees. That also means more visible to predators, but maybe this is why the pairs all seemed to be on high guard.

Similar to the first two posts in the series, the Neotropics do go through a breeding plumage transformation. Their pitch black heads will develop white plumes that emerged towards the back of the head (behind the eye) and the base of their bill will have a bright white outline. This white ‘V’ line is a good distinguisher from the Double-Crested Cormorants. Further distinguishing these two Cormorants, the DC breeding tufts develop directly behind the eye. The Neotropics have a longer tail, but my year round key field indicator is the color of the lores (the space between the eye and the bill). Neotropics have black coloring there (technically black feathers), where DCs are featherless allowing their orange/yellow coloring to be readily visible.

I do have a question for my birding friends regarding these Cormorants in general. What are/causes the white serrations on the bills. You can just make them out in the shots above (you may need to hit the image links to see them better). I thought it was only on the Neos at first, but I found them on images of the DCs as well. I can’t find anywhere this is mentioned – does it manifest only during breeding season, did someone buy them a Bejeweler kit as a baby shower gift, do they file sharp edges on their bills to mock and taunt the goofy Spoonbills? Let me know in the comments if you have any ideas.

Okay everyone time to get that earworm out of your heads…sing it loud and proud “I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee and you’re so vain you probably think this post was about you, don’t you, don’t you?” …and before you ask, coffee clouds is one of the stupidest lyrics ever written.