Is this Anhinga male?

[dragon49]

I posted this in the wrong forum and asked mods to delete the original.  I recently took this photo and it is the most amazing picture of an Anhinga I've ever had the pleasure of taking.  I've never seen the glossy blue before.  Can somebody confirm this is a male?

[lonestranger]

I can't help with sexing your bird but that is a great photo. Not just the dragonfly, but the bird is pretty cool too. ?

[dragon49]

14 minutes ago, lonestranger said:

I can't help with sexing your bird but that is a great photo. Not just the dragonfly, but the bird is pretty cool too. ?

Ty,

I'm also wondering what the heck that blue cap thing is on the left branch. 

[PalmWarbler]

1 minute ago, dragon49 said:

Ty,

I'm also wondering what the heck that blue cap thing is on the left branch. 

It’s just the Anhinga’s feathers reflecting onto the branch.

[MacMe]

21 hours ago, lonestranger said:

I can't help with sexing your bird but that is a great photo. Not just the dragonfly, but the bird is pretty cool too. ?

I had to go back and look for it.  The bird, not the dragonfly =Þ

[MacMe]

22 hours ago, dragon49 said:

it is the most amazing picture of an Anhinga I've ever had the pleasure of taking

You can really see how much of the wing is feathers.  It's arms look scrawny.  About as alarming as seeing how scrawny a fluffy cat is when its drenched

[Charlie Spencer]

The solid black neck indicates an adult male.

I've seen many an Anhinga and they definitely aren't glossy blue.  Something tricked the camera's sensor on this one.  It's still a great photo!

[dragon49]

26 minutes ago, Charlie Spencer said:

The solid black neck indicates an adult male.

I've seen many an Anhinga and they definitely aren't glossy blue.  Something tricked the camera's sensor on this one.  It's still a great photo!

I suspected the colors weren't exactly true; in fact, I almost asked this in the title and subject, but wishful thinking changed my mind. ?  My +2 (max setting for my camera) lighting exposure engaged the flash.  Not sure whether this enhanced the already pretty colors.  Some Anhinga Google searches did lead me to gray/blue wings and black/blue wings, so I thought that maybe the representation was accurate.  For full disclosure, my embedded pic was auto-adjusted with Photoshop Elements, but the bird looks exactly the same in the original.  The only thing the adjustment did was make the background weeds slightly less out of focus and darker.  Now that I said that, I'll post the original for comparison.  The birds look the same to me, (shopped one is overall slightly darker now that I see the pics side by side) but my eyes aren't what they used to be.  Let me know if you see differences.  

In any event, thanks for sexing the pretty bird.

Original photo below, followed by the photoshopped adjusted one I originally posted:

Edited September 21, 2021 by dragon49

[Charlie Spencer]

One of my favorite birds.

Yeah, I think it's just the angle of the light.  I agree it definitely looks blue in the image, but those feathers are silvery-gray.  I just don't want you expecting to see one look blue from a different angle or at a different time of day.  These two photos show other apparent color differences in the wings.  While the gray necks indicate females or immature males, the wings are the same color as you boy above.