SPACEPHOTOS

(02/29/2000) -- The greenish iridescence of a male Anhinga nearly blends into the green vegetation behind it on the grounds of the Kennedy Space Center. The mostly black-bodied bird is also known as a 'snakebird' because, when swimming, only its head and long, slender neck are visible above water. The anhinga inhabits freshwater ponds and swamps with thick vegetation and ranges the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from North Carolina to Texas, the Mississippi Valley north to Arkansas and Tennessee, and south to southern South America. The Center shares a boundary with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which encompasses 92,000 acres that are a habitat for more than 331 species of birds, 31 mammals, 117 fishes, and 65 amphibians and reptiles. The marshes and open water of the refuge provide wintering areas for 23 species of migratory waterfowl, as well as a year-round home for great blue herons, great egrets, wood storks, cormorants, brown pelicans and other species of marsh and shore birds, as well as a variety of insects