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The word anhinga comes from a'ñinga in the Brazilian Tupi language and means "devil bird" or "snake bird". [3] The origin of the name is apparent when swimming: only the neck appears above water, so the bird looks like a snake ready to strike. They do not have external nares (nostrils) and breathe solely through their epiglottis.
Seabird mortality caused by long-line fisheries can be greatly reduced by techniques such as setting long-line bait at night, dying the bait blue, setting the bait underwater, increasing the amount of weight on lines and by using bird scarers, [104] and their deployment is increasingly required by many national fishing fleets.
Such birds may enter the water from flight, such as pelicans, gannets and tropicbirds; or they may dive from the surface of the water, such as the diving ducks, cormorants and penguins. It is theorized that they evolved from birds already adapted for swimming that were equipped with such adaptations as lobed or webbed feet for propulsion. [1]
These South Carolina birds look like snakes when they swim to hunt. Here are four things to know about them.
They shed the colorful outer parts of their bills after the breeding season, leaving a smaller and duller beak. Their short wings are adapted for swimming with a flying technique underwater. In the air, they beat their wings rapidly (up to 400 times per minute) [1] in swift flight, often flying low over the ocean's surface.
The European Anglophone name "diver" comes from the bird's habit of catching fish by swimming calmly along the surface and then abruptly plunging into the water. The North American name "loon" likely comes from either the Old English word lumme , meaning lummox or awkward person, or the Scandinavian word lum meaning lame or clumsy.
The high haemoglobin concentration in their blood gives them a capacity to store oxygen greater than that of other birds, allowing them to remain underwater for 30 seconds or more, [9] whilst their basal metabolic rate is approximately one-third slower than typical terrestrial passerines of similar mass. [14]
Grebes (/ ˈ ɡ r iː b z /) are aquatic diving birds in the order Podicipediformes (/ ˌ p ɒ d ɪ s ɪ ˈ p ɛ d ɪ f ɔːr m iː z /). [1] Grebes are widely distributed freshwater birds, with some species also found in marine habitats during migration and winter. Most grebes fly, although some flightless species exist, most notably in stable ...