Belize Biodiversity Information System NAME - Anhinga FAMILY - Anhingidae SCIENTIFIC NAME - Anhinga anhinga SYNONYMS - Plotus anhinga - Linnaeus, 1766 REFERENCES - 1 and 2 National abundance, Conservation or Economic Status Reference Resident, species present all year. 38 Resident, species present all year. 3 Apparently secure in Belize 37 Common: high density, likely to be seen in many places 37 Of concern: cayes and coastal zone 29 U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty 33 District Reference Belize 4 Cayo 5 Corozal 10 Orange Walk 5 Stann Creek 11 Toledo 19 Administrative Unit Occurrence Temporal Reference Freshwater Creek Forest Reserve Dry season 10 Freshwater Creek Forest Reserve Dry season 17 Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve Dry season 27 Chiquibul Forest Reserve Dry season 15 Payne's Creek Wildlife Sanctuary 19 Shipstern Nature Reserve 14 Rio Bravo Conservation Area Permanent 35 Rio Bravo Conservation Area 22 Gallon Jug 20 Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary Sighting Dry season 25 Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary Sighting Wet season 23 Guanacaste National Park 21 Chiquibul National Park Dry season 27 Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary Permanent 34 Monkey Bay Wildlife Sanctuary 12 Burdon Canal Nature Reserve Sighting Dry season 7 Community Baboon Sanctuary 24 Community Baboon Sanctuary 28 Lamanai Archaeological Reserve 13 Mussel Creek Drainage (Proposed) Sighting Permanent 9 Mussel Creek Drainage (Proposed) Dry season 4 Northern Lagoon/Southern Lagoon (Prop Dry season 26 Northern Lagoon/Southern Lagoon (Prop Dry season 27 Northern Lagoon/Southern Lagoon (Prop 19 Private land, see comments Sighting Wet season 16 Private land, see comments Dry season 26 Private land, see comments 11 Private land, see comments 6 Private land, see comments 8 Government land Dry season 26 Government land Dry season 27 Government land 18 Cayes, other; see comments 37 Monkey River Special Development Area Sighting August 32 Hydrologic Association Reference New River Lagoon 35 Belize River 28 Deep River 19 New River 19 South Stann Creek 19 New River 18 Belize River 6 Cox's Lagoon 4 Macal River 8 Mussel Creek 9 Sittee River 11 Sibun River 12 New River 13 Raspaculo River 15 Elevation Reference 1-200 m 35 1-200 m 36 1:50,000 Quadrangle Reference 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 30' to 88 45' 13 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 30' to 88 45' 18 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 30' to 88 45' 23 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 30' to 88 45' 25 17 30' to 17 45'; 89 00' to 89 15' 20 17 30' to 17 45'; 89 00' to 89 15' 36 17 30' to 17 45'; 89 00' to 89 15' 5 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 45' to 89 00' 36 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 24 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 25 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 26 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 27 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 28 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 35 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 10' to 88 30' 26 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 10' to 88 30' 27 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 10' to 88 30' 36 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 10' to 88 30' 5 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 00' to 88 15' 7 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 45' to 89 00' 21 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 45' to 89 00' 6 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 30' to 88 45' 36 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 30' to 88 45' 4 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 10' to 88 30' 26 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 10' to 88 30' 27 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 10' to 88 30' 7 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 00' to 88 10' 7 17 00' to 17 15'; 89 00' to 89 15' 8 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 45' to 89 00' 36 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 45' to 89 00' 5 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 30' to 88 45' 36 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 00' to 88 30' 5 16 45' to 17 00'; 89 00' to 89 15' 27 16 45' to 17 00'; 88 45' to 89 00' 15 16 45' to 17 00'; 88 30' to 88 45' 34 16 45' to 17 00'; 88 15' to 88 30' 11 16 30' to 16 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 34 16 15' to 16 30'; 88 30' to 88 45' 19 18 15' to 18 30'; 88 00' to 88 15' 14 16 15' to 16 30'; 88 15' to 88 30' 32 18 00' to 18 15'; 88 15' to 88 30' 10 18 00' to 18 15'; 88 15' to 88 30' 17 17 45' to 18 00'; 89 00' to 89 15' 22 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 45' to 89 00' 16 Holdridge Life Zone Reference Tropical moist-transition to Subtropical 36 Subtropical wet 34 Subtropical moist 36 Subtropical moist 35 Subtropical moist 28 General Distribution Comments 38* Common northern semideciduous moist forest. Uncommon southern moist-wet evergreen broadleaf forests. Common coastal/low-lands savannas, inc. marshy areas. Common mangroves lowlands & coastal beaches. Rare cayes inc. Ambergris. 37* Bird Caye Northern Lagoon 27* Airport Camp; Big Falls Rice Farm; Guacamallo Bridge 26* Airport Camp; Big Falls 19* Ycacos Lagoon 16* Gold Button Ranch 11* Possum Point Biological Station 8* Sighted at or within 5 mile radius of Chaa Creek Cottages 6* Banana Bank Ranch 3* Common in northern hardwood forests, common in coastal savannas, common in mangroves and beaches along the coast of the mainland; uncommon in southern hardwood forests and fewer than 5 records in cayes including Ambergris Cay. References 1 A.O.U. 1983. Checklist of North American Birds. 6th Ed. 2 A.O.U. 1985, 1987, 1989. 35th-37th Supplements. 3 Wood, D.S.,R. C. Leberman, and D. Weyer. 1986. Checklist of Birds of Belize. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication 12. 4 Hunt, H. R., J. Tamarack. 1992. Cox Lagoon Crocodile Preserve. Unpub. report. pp.4-8 5 Miller, B. W., 1994. Belize Christmas Bird Counts, Twenty Year Summary. in prep. 6 Duncan, M., W. Duncan. 1993. Banana Bank, Nov. 1, Checklist provided in lit. 7 Miller, B., C. Miller. 1993. Preliminary Avian Survey of Burdon Canal Nature Reserve. Unpublished report for the Forest Department 8 Carnegie Ornithological Group and Mass Audubon Ornithological Group, compilers. 1993. Chaa Creek Bird List. Unpublished list. 9 Miller, B., C. Miller. 1987. Conservation of a Critical Marsh and Lowland habitat, Mussel Creek drainage system, Belize, C.A. Report to NYZS/Wildlife Conservation Society. 10 Miller, B., C. Miller. 1994. Avian Surveys: Freshwater Creek Forest Reserve 1-10 March. Unpublished Report to the Forestry Dept. 11 Anon. 1993. Bird Checklist for Possum Point Biological Station, Sittee River, Belize 12 Anon. 1994. Monkey Bay Checklist of Birds. Unpublished list. 13 Noble, B., B. Stewart, J. Dillon. 1994. Lamanai Bird List, Mid-October 1993 - 16 March 1994. 14 Meerman, J. 1993. Checklist of the Birds of the Shipstern Nature Reserve, Occasional Papers of the Belize Natural History Society. 2(10). pp. 71-81. 15 Mallory, E. 1993. Birds of the Upper Raspaculo, Belize: JSSEUR II. Unpublished report. 16 Platt, S. 1993. Wildlife Survey of Gold Button Ranch, Belize. Unpublished report. 17 Reichelt, B., C. Philcox. 1994. DRAFT - Freshwater Creek Forest Reserve Natural History Studies. Unpublished report. 18 McDuffie, P. 1993. Personal Bird List for Belize: September 1, 1989 - December 15, 1993. Unpublished list. 19 Russell, S. M. 1964. A Distributional Study of the Birds of British Honduras. Ornithological Monographs No. 1, A.O.U. 20 Miller, B., C. Miller. 1994. A working checklist of the birds of Gallon Jug. Unpublished list. 21 Robbins, C. S., 1987. Birds recorded at Guanacaste National Park. Unpublished list. 22 Anon. 1994 (August). Working Checklist, Birds of Rio Bravo Conservation Management Area. Unpublished list. 23 Forsythe, D. 1994. Unpublished Belize Trip list June 18-21. 24 O'Connell, S. 1987. in Horwich, R. H. and J. Lyon. The Community Baboon Sanctuary, A Guide Book. Orangu-tan Press, Gays Mills, WI. pp. 113. 25 Counsell, D.J.R., B. Etheridge. 1986. RAFOS Expedition to Belize. Unpublished report. 26 Hallchurch, T.T., compiler. 1982. Exercise King Vulture Belize 23 Feb.- 16 March. Unpub. report for the British Army Bird Watching Society. 27 Jenkins, P. G. 1982. The Royal Air Force Ornithological Society Belize Expedition, 1981. 80.pp Unpublished report. 28 James, D., J. Bider. 1993. Bird List: Community Baboon Sanctuary, 1989- 1993 (derived from banding & census data, field notes). Unpublished data 29 McRae, E., 1994. The Birds of Belize's Coastal Zone: Species, Distribution, Current Status, Threats to Their Well-being, and Potential Measures to Reduce Their impact. Unpublished report. 30 Stiles, F. G., A. F. Skutch. 1989. A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica. Ithaca, NY. Comstock Publishing Associates 31 Howell, S. N. G., S. Webb. 1995. A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. New York. Oxford University Press. 32 Meerman, J.C. ed. 1995. Monkey River Special Development Area Stann Creek District, Belize. Belize Tropical Forest Studies Publication #5. Unpublished Technical report for B.E.S.T. 33 Title 50 Code of Federal Regulations, Subchapter B., Part 10.13: List of Migratory Birds. U.S. Government Printing Office: 1985 0-488-794. (Lists all species of migratory birds protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (16 U.S.C. 703-711). 34 Kamstra, J. May 1987. An Ecological Survey of the Cockscomb Basin, Belize. Masters Thesis. York University, Ontario, Canada 35 Vallely, A. C., A. A. Whitman. 1996. The birds of Hill Bank, northern Belize. Unpublished report for Programme for Belize. 36 Miller, B. W. 1997. Belize Christmas Bird Count Summary 1970-1995. Data from American Birds Vol. 28-50 including 1973-1996. 37 Miller, B.W., C.M. Miller. 1997. Avian Risk Assessment for Belize, Species at Risk and of Conservation Concern. Report to Programme for Belize/TNC Wings of America Program. 38 Garcia, J., S. Matola, M. Meadows, and C. Wright. 1994. A Checklist of the Birds of Belize. WWF-US. 35p.
Wildlife Conservation Society
Ministry of Natural Resources' Land Information Centre
01/19/98