This is an AMERICAN ANHINGA OR SNAKE-BIRD.

She has been living (or lived) in a tree by my Century 21 Sundance office for at least the last year, hunting for her daily meals in the pond/canal. She is different from any other water foul I've ever witnessed swim before.

You see, she swims with just her neck and head above the water, (thus the name "Snake-bird") or if she is hunting fish she will be completely immersed as she stalks her prey, hiding amongst the pond muck before striking.

The anhinga doesn't have oil in their feathers like most water foul so they will climb back in their tree and spread their wings in the sun to dry and get warm again. She will sit like this for a good long time too.

Her eyes are a scary red color. I imagine it has something to do having sharp underwater vision. I looked at a lot of different websites and not one of them mentioned a reason for the eye color of these birds. It's almost evil looking.

This particular anhinga noticed that as I fed the fish there was a lot of activity going on near her tree. She began to take a closer look and realized what a feast of fish and oh, that Great Blue Heron just ate one!

Next thing I knew here comes Ms. Anhinga swimming out of the water within a couple feet of me with a fish of her own. Did I have my camera out with me that day? Nooo, of course not. Well, I started bringing out with me every day after and my patience won out, twice!

(Warning, Photos are a bit graphic)

This day in July, my new friend speared a good sized blue gill and proudly came walking out of the water about 5 feet from me displaying her catch. It took her a good while to eat her prize, it was almost too big for her.

Recently Ms. Anhinga didn't like Mr. Great Blue Heron (twice her size) around her fish stash and kept chasing him off, it was quite funny to watch. She was in the water and he was trying to get to the water and she kept chasing him off, I'm so sorry I didn't get that on video.

The next day as I was feeding the fish she was having no luck catching one and she had the nerve to come out of the water, walk up to me and open her mouth, making her threatening noise, as if to try to chase me off. I looked at her and said "Why you ungrateful bird, get back in there and get your lunch".

She went back in the water and started to chase the soft shelled turtle off.

(the turtles are not a threat to her fish stash either, they are in fact very shy and are not fish eaters even though they look mean)

I haven't seen her since. Maybe there was just too much action there at her little tree.

The other anhinga that used to hang out at the other end of the water is missing too, I wonder if they are up to no good together...