A Real African Hunter!

over 4 years ago (Edited)

I was at a river mouth opening on the beach and a surprise awaited me!

The river mouth below the road bridge teems with birdlife and fish. It is an ideal place to visit, but I chose the wrong day as we expected clouds to cover the sun and there were none.
So I was exposed to a blistering morning sun that reflected off the water surface. But that did not stop me from trying and mother nature decided to show me what I can look forward to in the near future.
Something totally unexpected!

The story starts here, as I took the 2 photos above of an African Darter at another dam on the 8th of November.
It is to show you what he looks like out of the water!

And here you can see an African Darter on the hunt for a fish!
They swim with only their necks showing above water!

Bam! Look! He caught a fish!
The sunlight blurred the photos, but I just had to show you!

Speared the fish through it's body with his sharp beak!

A broadside show to me of his catch!

This was the last shot that I could get of him with the fish!
All of the other shots were deleted as they were almost white in color due to the sunlight!

African Darter at Chobe.jpg

Now here is a photo that was taken in ideal lighting conditions of an African Darter at Chobe in Botswana!
Source: By Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74488250

On my way back I took this flying gull with the mountain as a backdrop!

And That's All Folks!

Here is some information about this famous African Hunter!

"The African darter is found throughout sub-Saharan Africa wherever large bodies of water occur; overall the species remains widespread and common.[1]
One subspecies, the Levant darter (Anhinga rufa chantrei), occurred at Lake Amik (Amik Gölü) in south-central Turkey, in Hula valley lake and marshes in northern Israel and in the Mesopotamian Marshes of the lower Euphrat and Tigris rivers in southern Iraq. The Turkish population disappeared during the 1930s and the Israeli population during Hula drainage in the 1950s. It was feared that it also had disappeared from Iraq, but a small and threatened population remains at least in the Hawizeh Marshes (part of the Mesopotamian Marshes), which are also home to numerous other waters birds such as little grebe, pygmy cormorant, marbled teal and sacred ibis".

"This species builds a stick nest in a tree and lays 3–6 eggs. It often nests with herons, egrets and cormorants.
It often swims with only the neck above water, hence the common name snakebird. This, too, is a habit shared with the other anhingas.
Unlike many other waterbirds the feathers of the African darter do not contain any oil and are therefore not waterproof. Because of this, the bird is less positively buoyant and its diving capabilities are enhanced. After diving for fish, the feathers can become waterlogged. In order to be able to fly and maintain heat insulation, it needs to dry its feathers. Thus the African darter is often seen sitting along the waterside spreading its wings and drying its feathers in the wind and the sun along with cormorants which may share its habitat".

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_darter

We trust that you have enjoyed the photos and the information. Thank you for visiting a post by @papilloncharity

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55 comments

@trincowski 71

over 4 years ago

Nice that you could take one perfect shot of him holding the fish! Amazing!!! 😃

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