Darter

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(Redirected from Anhingidae)

For the genus of fish also known as darters see Etheostoma

{{Taxobox | color = pink | name = Darters | image = Darterm.jpg | image_caption = Male | regnum = Animalia | phylum = Chordata | classis = Aves | ordo = Pelecaniformes | familia = Anhingidae | familia_authority = Reichenbach, 1849 | genus = Anhinga | genus_authority = Brisson, 1760 | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = A. anhinga
A. melanogaster
A. rufa
A. novaehollandiae }}

Darters (also called snake birds) are cormorant-like water birds with very long necks and long, straight beaks. They often swim with only the neck above water, and are specialist fish-eaters.

There are either two or four closely-related species sharing very similar behaviour and habitat in the darter family, Anhingidae, depending on the authority. The Anhinga of the Americas (Anhinga anhinga) is clearly a good species, but the Indian, African, and Australian darters can be regarded as either three very similar species, or a single species A. melanogaster with three widely separated subspecies, (A. m. melanogaster, A. m. rufa and A. m. novaehollandiae).

The Anhinga is native to the Americas. The Indian Darter is widespread eastwards from the Indian sub-continent to Indonesia, and differs in appearance from the African and American darters mainly by its white lateral neck stripe.

The African Darter occurs in tropical sub-Saharan Africa, and differs in appearance from Indian and American Darter mainly by its thin white lateral neck stripe against a rufous background colour.

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Species

Anhinga, Anhinga anhinga
Oriental Darter, Anhinga melanogaster
African Darter, Anhinga rufa
Australian Darter, Anhinga novaehollandiae

Extinct "species" from Mauritius and Australia known only from bones were described as Anhinga nana (Mauritian Darter) and Anhinga parvus, but they were misidentifications of bones of the Long-tailed Cormorant and the Little Pied Cormorant, respectively (Olson, 1975). In the former case, however, they might belong to an extinct subspecies which would have to be called Phalacrocorax africanus nanus (Mauritian Cormorant) - quite ironically, as nanus/nana means "small" and the remains are larger than those of the next population of the Long-tailed Cormorant.

There are a number of prehistoric species and genera known only from (mostly Tertiary) fossils; some of them very large.

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