Oriental Darter

How to identify

Field marks

1. Neck slender, bill straight and pointed
2. Adult body feathers mainly black
3. Adult has a pale longitudinal line along the side of the neck
4. Tail wedge-shaped in flight

Male, female and young

Adult sexes difficult to distinguish; female has a shorter bill. Juvenile has a pale brown neck and whitish underparts, with no white stripe on the side of the neck.

Voice

Adults usually quiet; at the nest they grunt, give harsh calls and also call “chigi-chigi-chigi”.

Where and when it's recorded

Oriental Darter has been recorded at 475 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 15 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Changaram Wetlands – EzhupunnaIndia4,548 records
2. Bharatpur – Keoladeo Ghana NPIndia4,397 records
3. Saul Kere / Sowl KereIndia3,463 records

Countries and regions with the most records

IndiaSri LankaMalaysiaCambodiaThailandNepalIndonesiaSingapore

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The Oriental darter (Anhinga melanogaster) is a water bird of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. It has a long and slender neck with a straight, pointed bill and, like the cormorant, it hunts for fish while its body is submerged in water. It spears a fish underwater, bringing it above the surface, tossing and juggling it before swallowing the fish head first.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions