Three Anhinga Nestlings vie for the attention of their mom for a dive down her throat where some nice digested fish awaits.
As with all new parents, the Anhingas are very busy keeping up with the voracious appetites of their downy nestlings. Upon hatching anhinga chicks are naked and helpless but quickly grow a soft white covering of down. Here you can see the covering of down and the prominent pin feathers on the wings. They are initially fed by their parents dripping fluid and regurgitated material from partially digested fish down their throats. It does not take long for the chicks to figure out where the food comes from and soon are seen shoving their heads down their parents’ beaks to acquire food. You can see how big they already are less than a month old .The chicks can fledge at about a month and a half in age, but stay with their parents for several more weeks before becoming truly independent. It is interesting to watch the chicks wait for their meal as they move their heads in tandem in a very tremulous way tipping their heads up and down for attention. So sinuous and snake like in movement. It is often easy to see which is the dominant chick and which have to wait.
Size: 3042px × 3606px
Location: South Florida Wetland
Photo credit: © Judy Lovell-Janthina Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: anhinga, chicks, dive, eye, feathers, feeding, female, fish, florida, fluff, green, heads, lore, nest, nesting, pin, predigestion, regurgitation, rookery, ruby, sequence, skin, throat, trembly, tremulous, wetland, young
