Australasian darter
Australasian darter | |
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Female | |
Male | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Suliformes |
Family: | Anhingidae |
Genus: | Anhinga |
Species: | A. novaehollandiae
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Binomial name | |
Anhinga novaehollandiae (Gould, 1847)
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Distribution map | |
Synonyms | |
Anhinga laticeps (De Vis, 1906) |
The Australasian darter or Australian darter (Anhinga novaehollandiae) is a species of
. It weighs around 2.6 kg and spans 86–94 cm (34–37 in) in length.Taxonomy
John Gould described the Australasian darter as Plotus novaehollandiae in 1847.[2] Closely related to American (Anhinga anhinga), African (Anhinga rufa), and Oriental (Anhinga melanogaster) darters, the Australasian darter has been classed as a subspecies of the African or African plus Oriental darters. All four have also been classed as a single species. Examination of the leg bones indicates the three Old World species are more closely related to each other with the American species more divergent.[3] Genetic analysis showed it differed from A. rufa to a degree equivalent to that between other separate species, and shifted consensus to treating the Australasian darter as a separate species.[4][5]
Fossils of the Australasian darter have been recovered from several Pleistocene strata in Australia.[6]
As well as Australasian darter, common names given to the species include darter, diver, needle-beak shag, shag, and snake-bird.[7] The Noongar people of southwestern Australia call it mimal.[8] Gould also called it the New Holland darter or New Holland devil-bird.[9]
Description
The Australasian darter is a slim bird measuring 86–94 cm (34–37 in) long with a snakelike slender neck. The male has black plumage with a white streak down the side of its head and neck, while the female has white underparts.[10]
Distribution and habitat
Typical
Feeding
The Australasian darter forages in water, often with only its head and neck exposed. Its feathers soak up water in spaces between them, allowing the bird to reduce its natural buoyancy and swim underwater.
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Female bringing fish to shore
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Male eating fish
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Eating a northern saratoga
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Eating a Scleropages jardinii
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Yellow Water, Kakadu NP, Northern Territory
Breeding
The Australasian darter breeds throughout its range on or near bodies of fresh or inland salt water. Breeding process will takes place once a year, or twice on rare occasions of two floods in the one year. Breeding takes place in spring (August to October) in southern Australia, during the wet season (January to March/April) in northern Australia,[13] in April in the Trans-Fly region of southern New Guinea, August and September in the Lower Fly and July and November around Port Moresby.[14] The nest is a large, wide dish-shaped structure made of sticks and lined with reeds, leaves and rushes, often located in the branches of a partly submerged tree or tree overhanging water. Darters often build their nests in cormorant colonies, where the nests can be distinguished by their larger size and lack of guano.[13]
Three to five elongated oval eggs are laid, measuring 56 by 34 mm. They are pale blue but covered in a layer of chalky lime, and become progressively scratched and stained over the incubation period.[13]
Gallery
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Immature male
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Young male
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Male preening
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Male drying its wings
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Female drying its wings
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Female in flight
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Female
References
- . Retrieved 15 November 2021.
- ^ Gould, John (1847). "On eight species of Australian birds; and on Anthus minimus Vig. and Hors., as the type of a new genus Chthonicola Gould". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London: 31–35 [34].
- .
- PMID 16109705.
- ISBN 978-0-643-06511-6.
- .
- ^ Australian Biological Resources Study (18 April 2014). "Species Anhinga novaehollandiae (Gould, 1847)". Australian Faunal Directory. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Australian Government. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
- ^ Abbott, Ian (2009). "Aboriginal names of bird species in south-west Western Australia, with suggestions for their adoption into common usage" (PDF). Conservation Science Western Australia Journal. 7 (2): 213–78 [241].
- ISBN 978-0-643-10471-6.
- ^ ISBN 9781400865109.
- ISBN 9780643094932.
- ISBN 978-0-643-05007-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-646-42798-0.
- ISBN 9781400880713.