The Florida Everglades.

On our Everglades National Park bus tour, we saw several bird species closely associated with water. According to Wikipedia, the anhinga, sometimes called the snakebird, darter, American darter, or water turkey, is a large waterbird found in the warmer parts of the Americas. The word “anhinga” comes from the Tupi language spoken by indigenous Brazilians and means “devil bird” or “snake bird.” This name perfectly captures the bird’s appearance as it swims through the water with only the head and neck visible.

The anhinga is an excellent swimmer and diver. It is a long and slender bird with a long, S-shaped neck and a dagger-like bill, particularly common to the Everglades. Males are black with silvery-white streaks on their backs and wings, while females and immatures have a pale tan head, neck, and breast. They all have a long, fan-like tail that resembles a turkey’s tail, hence the nickname “water turkey.”

About the photo: As our tour bus passed a thick growth in the swamp at the edge of the park road, the tour guide pointed out the anhinga in the thicket. The bird was close enough when using my Samsung S23U’s 10x superzoom. My Sony RX100’s less capable zoom made it easy for me to opt for my cell phone.

Processing was primarily completed in Luminar Neo after cropping to square format in Adobe Lightroom Classic. The bird’s dark plumage against the brightly sunlit thicket led to the underexposure of the bird’s darkest feathers. I created a radial fill mask over the bird and then inverted the mask so I could adjust the exposure of the background to tone down the brightness, providing a barely noticeable vignetting effect. Then, I used the luminosity mask to select the darker parts of the image, most of which included the anhinga. I raised the exposure and contrast in the darker plumage to give more detail in the darkest areas of the bird. Fortunately, the lighter-colored wing feathers were in the sunlight.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s also acceptable. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, also, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner