White-cheeked Pintail

The White cheeked Pintail or Bahama Pintail (Anas bahamensis) is a dabbling duck of the Caribbean, South America, and the Galápagos Islands.[2]

This species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 under its current scientific name.[3] There are three subspecies: A. b. bahamensis in the Caribbean, and a vagrant in south Florida. A. b. galapagensis on the Galapagos, and the slightly larger A. b. rubirostris in South America. The latter race may be partially migratory, breeding in Argentina and wintering further north.[2]

Like many southern ducks, the sexes are similar. It is mainly brown with white cheeks and a red-based grey bill (young birds lack the pink). It cannot be confused with any other duck in its range.[2]

This species occurs on waters with a degree of salinity, such as brackish lakes, estuaries and mangrove swamps.[2]

The White-cheeked Pintail feeds on aquatic plants and small creatures obtained by dabbling. The nest is on the ground under vegetation and near water.[2]

Northern Pintail

The Pintail or Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) is a widely occurring duck which breeds in the northern areas of Europe, Asia and North America. It is strongly migratory and winters south of its breeding range to the equator. Unusually for a bird with such a large range, it has no geographical subspecies if the possibly con-specific Eaton's Pintail is considered to be a separate species.

This is a fairly large duck, with a long pointed tail that gives rise to the species' English and scientific names. The Northern Pintail's many names describe the male's two long black tail feathers, which in flight look like a single pin or twig (thus, the nickname sprig). These feathers are very distinctive, accounting for a quarter of the total length of the drake when in full plumage.[2] Fast and graceful fliers, pintails are equipped with long wings, small heads, and long necks that seem built for streamlined aerodynamics. Both sexes have blue gray bills and gray legs and feet. The drake is more striking, having a thin white stripe running from the back of its chocolate-colored head down its neck to its mostly white undercarriage. The drake also has attractive gray, brown, and black patterning on its back and sides. The hen's plumage is more subtle and subdued, with drab brown feathers similar to those of other female dabblers. Hens make a coarse quack and the drakes a flute-like whistle.[2]
The Northern Pintail is a bird of open wetlands which nests on the ground, often some distance from water. It feeds by dabbling for plant food and adds small invertebrates to its diet during the nesting season. It is highly gregarious when not breeding, forming large mixed flocks with other species of duck.
This duck's population is affected by predators, parasites and avian diseases. Human activities, such as agriculture, hunting and fishing, have also had a significant impact on numbers. Nevertheless, this species' huge range and large population mean that it is not threatened globally.
Taxonomy
This species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 as Anas acuta[3] The scientific name comes from two Latin words: anas, meaning "duck", and acuta, which comes from the verb acuere, which means "sharpen"; the species term, like the English name, refers to the pointed tail of the male.[4]
Within the large dabbling duck genus Anas,[3] the Northern Pintail's closest relatives are other pintails, such as the Yellow-billed Pintail (A. georgica) and Eaton's Pintail (A. eatoni). The pintails are sometimes separated in the genus Dafila (described by Stephens, 1824), an arrangement supported by morphological, molecular and behavioural data.[5][6][7] The famous British ornithologist Sir Peter Scott gave this name to his daughter, the artist Dafila Scott.[8]
Eaton's Pintail has two subspecies, A. e. eatoni (the Kerguelen Pintail) of Kerguelen Islands, and A. e. drygalskyi (the Crozet Pintail) of Crozet Islands, and was formerly considered conspecific with the northern hemisphere's Northern Pintail. Sexual dimorphism is much less marked in the southern pintails, with the male's breeding appearance being similar to the female plumage. Unusually for a species with such a large range, Northern Pintail has no geographical subspecies if Eaton's Pintail is treated as a separate species.

 Description

The Northern Pintail is a fairly large duck with a wingspan of 23.6–28.2 centimetres (9.3–11.1 in). The male is 59–76 centimetres (23–30 in) in length and weighs 450–1360 grammes (1–3 lb), and therefore is considerably larger than the female, which is 51–64 centimetres (20–25 in) long and weighs 454–1135 grammes (1–2.5 lb).[10] The male in breeding plumage has a chocolate-brown head and white breast with a white stripe extending up the side of the neck. Its upperparts and sides are grey, but elongated grey feathers with black central stripes are draped across the back from the shoulder area. The vent area is yellow, contrasting with the black underside of the tail,[9] which has the central feathers elongated to as much as 10 centimetres (4 in). The bill is bluish and the legs are blue-grey.
The adult female is mainly scalloped and mottled in light brown with a more uniformly grey-brown head, and its pointed tail is shorter than the male’s; it is still easily identified by its shape, long neck, and long grey bill.
In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake Pintail looks similar to the female, but retains the male upperwing pattern and long grey shoulder feathers. Juvenile birds resemble the female, but are less neatly scalloped and have a duller brown speculum with a narrower trailing edge.[12]
The Pintail walks well on land, and swims buoyantly.[9] It has a very fast flight, with its wings slightly swept-back, rather than straight out from the body like other ducks. In flight, the male shows a black speculum bordered white at the rear and pale rufous at the front, whereas the female's speculum is dark brown bordered with white, narrowly at the front edge but very prominently at the rear, being visible at a distance of 1600 metres (1 mi).[12]
The male's call is a soft proop-proop whistle, similar to that of the Common Teal, whereas the female has a Mallard-like descending quack, and a low croak when flushed.[9]

Distribution and habitatThe Northern Pintail has been called the "nomads of the skies." due to their wide-ranging migrations.[2] This dabbling duck breeds across northern areas of Eurasia south to about Poland and Mongolia,[10] and in Canada, Alaska and the Midwestern United States. It winters mainly south of its breeding range, reaching almost to the equator in Panama, northern sub-Saharan Africa and tropical South Asia. Small numbers migrate to Pacific islands, particularly Hawaii, where a few hundred birds winter on the main islands in shallow wetlands and flooded agricultural habitats.[9] Transoceanic journeys also occur: a bird that was caught and ringed in Labrador, Canada, was shot by a hunter in England nine days later,[10] and Japanese-ringed birds have been recovered from six US states east to Utah and Mississippi.[13] In parts of the range, such as Great Britain and the northwestern United States, the Pintail may be present all year.[12][14][15]

The Northern Pintail's breeding habitat is open unwooded wetlands, such as wet grassland, lakesides or tundra. In winter, it will utilise a wider range of open habitats, such as sheltered estuaries, brackish marshes and coastal lagoons. It is highly gregarious outside the breeding season and forms very large mixed flocks with other ducks.[9]
Behaviour

 Breeding
Breeding pairBoth sexes reach sexual maturity at one year of age. The male mates with the female by swimming close to her with his head lowered and tail raised, continually whistling. If there is a group of males, they will chase the female in flight until only one drake is left. The female prepares for copulation, which takes place in the water, by lowering her body; the male then bobs his head up and down and mounts the female, taking the feathers on the back of her head in his mouth. After mating, he raises his head and back and whistles.[10]

Breeding takes place between April and June, with the nest being constructed on the ground and hidden amongst vegetation in a dry location, often some distance from water. It is a shallow scrape on the ground lined with plant material and down.[9] The female lays seven to nine cream-coloured eggs at the rate of one per day;[10] the eggs are 55 x 38 millimetres (2.2 x 1.5 in) in size and weigh 45 grammes (1.6 oz), of which 7% is shell.[16] If predators destroy the first clutch, the female can produce a replacement clutch as late as the end of July.[10]

The hen alone incubates the eggs for 22 to 24 days before they hatch. The precocial downy chicks are then led by the female to the nearest body of water, where they feed on dead insects on the water surface. The chicks fledge in 46 to 47 days after hatching, but stay with the female until she has completed moulting.[10]

Around three-quarters of chicks live long enough to fledge, but not more than half of those survive long enough to reproduce.[10] The maximum recorded age is 27 years and 5 months for a Dutch bird,[16] but the average life span for wild birds will be much shorter than this, and is likely to be similar to that of other wild ducks, such as the Mallard, at about two years.[17]
Feeding Up-ending to feed (male on right)The Pintail feeds by dabbling and upending in shallow water for plant food mainly in the evening or at night, and therefore spends much of the day resting.[9] Its long neck enables it to take food items from the bottom of water bodies up to 30 centimetres (1 ft) deep, which are beyond the reach of other dabbling ducks like the Mallard.[11]
The winter diet is mainly plant material including seeds and rhizomes of aquatic plants, but the Pintail sometimes feeds on roots, grain and other seeds in fields, though less frequently than other Anas ducks.[11] During the nesting season, this bird eats mainly invertebrate animals, including aquatic insects, molluscs and crustaceans.[10]
Health

Pintail nests and chicks are vulnerable to predation by mammals, such as foxes and badgers, and birds like gulls, crows and magpies. The adults can take flight to escape terrestrial predators, but nesting females in particular may be surprised by large carnivores such as bobcats.[10] Large birds of prey, such as Northern Goshawks, will take ducks from the ground, and some falcons, including the Gyrfalcon, have the speed and power to catch flying birds.[18]

Male preeningIt is susceptible to a range of parasites including Cryptosporidium, Giardia, tapeworms, blood parasites and external feather lice,[19][20][21][22] and is also affected by other avian diseases. It is often the dominant species in major mortality events from avian botulism and avian cholera,[23] and can also contract avian influenza, the H5N1 strain of which is highly pathogenic and occasionally infects humans.[24]

The Northern Pintail is a popular species for game shooting because of its speed, agility, and excellent eating qualities, and is hunted across its range.[25][26] Although one of the world's most numerous ducks,[16] the combination of hunting with other factors has led to population declines, and local restrictions on hunting have been introduced at times to help conserve numbers.[27]

This species' preferred habitat of shallow water is naturally susceptible to problems such as drought or the encroachment of vegetation, but this duck’s habitat might be increasingly threatened by climate change.[16] Populations are also affected by the conversion of wetlands and grassland to arable crops, depriving the duck of feeding and nesting areas. Spring planting means that many nests of this early breeding duck are destroyed by farming activities,[28] and a Canadian study showed that more than half of the surveyed nests were destroyed by agricultural work such as ploughing and harrowing.[29]

FemaleHunting with lead shot, along with the use of lead sinkers in angling, has been identified as a major cause of lead poisoning in waterfowl, which often feed off the bottom of lakes and wetlands where the shot collects.[30] A Spanish study showed that Northern Pintail and Common Pochard were the species with the highest levels of lead shot ingestion, higher than in northern countries of the western Palearctic flyway, where lead shot has been banned.[31] In the United States, Canada, and many western European countries, all shot used for waterfowl must now be non-toxic, and therefore may not contain any lead.[32][33][34]

Status

The Northern Pintail has a large range, estimated at 10 million square kilometres (0.4-3.8 million sq mi), and a population estimated at 6.1–7.7 million individuals. It is therefore not believed to meet the IUCN Red List threshold criterion of a population decline of more than 30% in ten years or three generations, and is evaluated as Least Concern.[1]

Feeding maleIn the Palaearctic, breeding populations are declining in much of the range, including its stronghold in Russia, and are otherwise stable or fluctuating.[35]

Pintails in North America at least have been badly affected by avian diseases, with the breeding population falling from more than 10 million in 1957 to 3.5 million by 1964. Although the species has recovered from that low point, the breeding population in 1999 was 30% below the long-term average, despite years of major efforts focused on restoring the species. In 1997, an estimated 1.5 million water birds, the majority being Northern Pintails, died from avian botulism during two outbreaks in Canada and Utah.[23]

Falcated Duck

The Falcated Duck or Falcated Teal (Anas falcata) is a Gadwall-sized dabbling duck
Taxonomy
The closest relative of this species is the Gadwall, followed by the wigeons.[2]

Distribution and habitat

The Falcated duck breeds in eastern Asia. It nests in eastern Russia, in Khabarovsk, Primorskiy, Amur, Chita, Buryatia, Irkutsk, Tuva, eastern Krasnoyarsk, south central Sakha Sakhalin, extreme northeastern North Korea and northern China, in northeastern Inner Mongolia, and northern Heilongjiang, and in northern Japan, Hokkaidō, Aomori, and the Kuril Islands[3]. It is widely recorded well outside its normal range, but the popularity of this beautiful duck in captivity clouds the origins of these extralimital birds.

This dabbling duck is strongly migratory and winters in much of Southeast Asia. In India: Uttar Pradesh, Bihār, Assam, eastern Haryāna. Also in northern Bangladesh, northern and central Myanmar, northern Laos to the Mekong River, northern Vietnam (from about Hanoi north), and China: Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Guangxi Zhuang, Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, northern Hunan, Hubei, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, southern Hebei, Shanxi, northern Shaanxi[3]. It is gregarious outside the breeding season and will then form large flocks.

This is a species of lowland wetlands, such as water meadows or lakes, and usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing. It nests on the ground, near water and under the cover of taller vegetation. The clutch is 6–10 eggs.
Identification
This is a at 48–54 cm length. The breeding male is unmistakable. Most of the body plumage is finely vermiculated grey, with the long sickle-shaped tertials, which give this species its name, hanging off its back. The large head is dark green with a white throat, and a dark green collar and bronzed crown)[4]. The vent region is patterned in yellow, black and white.
The female Falcated Duck is dark brown, with plumage much like a female wigeon. Its long grey bill is an aid to identification[4]. The eclipse male is like the female, but darker on the back and head. In flight both sexes show a pale grey underwing. The blackish speculum is bordered with a white bar on its inner edge[4]. Young birds are buffer than the female and have short tertials.

The male Falcated Duck has a clear low whistle, whereas the female has a gruff "quack".

Gadwall

The Gadwall (Anas strepera) is a common and widespread duck of the family Anatidae. This species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 under its current scientific name.[2]

Description

The Gadwall is 46–56 cm (18–22 in) long with a 78–90 cm (31–35 in) wingspan.[3] The male is slightly larger than the female, weighing on average 990 g (35 oz) against her 850 g (30 oz).[4] The breeding male is patterned grey, with a black rear end, light chestnut wings, and a brilliant white speculum, obvious in flight or at rest.[5] In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake looks more like the female, but retains the male wing pattern, and is usually greyer above and has less orange on the bill.[4]

The female is light brown, with plumage much like a female Mallard. It can be distinguished from that species by the dark orange-edged bill, smaller size, the white speculum, and white belly.[5] Both sexes go through two moults annually, following a juvenile moult.[3]

The Gadwall is a quieter duck, except during its courtship display. Females give a call similar to the quack of a female Mallard but higher-pitched, transcribed as gag-ag-ag-ag. Males give a grunt, transcribed as nheck, and a whistle.[4]
Distribution

The Gadwall breeds in the northern areas of Europe and Asia, and central North America. In North America, its breeding range lies along the Saint Lawrence River, through the Great Lakes, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Dakotas, south to Kansas, west to California, and along coastal Pacific Canada and southern coastal Alaska.[3][5] The range of this bird appears to be expanding into eastern North America. This dabbling duck is strongly migratory, and winters farther south than its breeding range, from coastal Alaska, south into Central America, and east into Idaho, Kansas, Ohio, Virginia, and then south all the way into Central America.[3][5] Its conservation status is Least Concern.[1]

In Great Britain, the Gadwall is a scarce-breeding bird and winter visitor, though its population has increased in recent years. It is likely that its expansion was partly through introduction, mainly to England, and partly colonization Great Britain, with continental birds staying to breed in Scotland. It has been reported in the River Avon (Hampshire).

Behaviour
Pair up-ending in KolkataThe Gadwall is a bird of open wetlands, such as prairie or steppe lakes, wet grassland or marshes with dense fringing vegetation, and usually feeds by dabbling for plant food with head submerged. It nests on the ground, often some distance from water. It is not as gregarious as some dabbling ducks outside the breeding season and tends to form only small flocks. This is a fairly quiet species; the male has a hoarse whistling call, and the female has a Mallard-like quack. The young birds are fed insects at first; adults also eat some molluscs and insects during the nesting season. The Gadwall is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

Taxonomy

The Gadwall’s closest relative within the genus Anas is the Falcated Duck, followed by the wigeons.[6]

There are two sub-species although one is extinct:

A. strepera strepera, Common Gadwall the nominate subspecies.[7]
†A. strepera couesi, Coues' Gadwall, extinct circa 1874, was located on Fanning Island.[7]
The etymology of the word Gadwall is not known but the term has been in usage from around 1666.[8]

Eurasian Wigeon

The Wigeon or Eurasian Wigeon (Anas penelope, previously Mareca penelope) is one of three species of wigeon in the dabbling duck genus Anas. It is common and widespread within its range. This species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 under its current scientific name.[2]

Description

This dabbling duck is 42–50 centimetres (17–20 in) long with a 71–80 centimetres (28–31 in) wingspan, and a weight of 1.5 pounds (680 g).[3] The breeding male has grey flanks and back, with a black rear end and a dark green speculum and a brilliant white patch on upper wings, obvious in flight or at rest. It has a pink breast, white belly, and a chestnut head with a creamy crown.[4] In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake looks more like the female. The female is light brown, with plumage much like a female American Wigeon. It can be distinguished from most other ducks, apart from American Wigeon, on shape. However, that species has a paler head and white axillaries on its underwing. The female can be a rufous morph with a redder head, and a gray morph with a more gray head.[4]

 Distribution

It breeds in the northernmost areas of Europe and Asia.[5] It is the Old World counterpart of North America's American Wigeon. It is strongly migratory and winters further south than its breeding range. It migrates to southern Asia and Africa.[5] In Great Britain and Ireland the Eurasian Wigeon is common as a winter visitor, but scarce as a breeding bird in Scotland, the Lake District, the Pennines and occasionally further south. It can be found as an uncommon winter visitor in the United States on the mid-Atlantic and Pacific coasts. It is a rare visitor to the rest of the United States except for the Four Corners and the southern Appalachians.[3][4]

Behaviour

 and habitatThe Eurasian Wigeon is a bird of open wetlands, such as wet grassland or marshes with some taller vegetation, and usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing, which it does very readily. It nests on the ground, near water and under cover. It is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and will form large flocks. They will join with flocks of the American Wigeon in the United States, and they also hybridize with them.[3] This is a noisy species. The male has a clear whistle that sounds like: "pjiew pjiew", whereas the female has a low growl : "rawr".

The Eurasian Wigeon is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies. Its conservation status is Least Concern.[1]

Northern Shoveler

The Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata), sometimes known simply as the Shoveler (pronounced /ˈʃʌvələr/), is a common and widespread duck. It breeds in northern areas of Europe and Asia and across most of North America,[2] and is a rare vagrant to Australia. In North America, it breeds along the southern edge of Hudson Bay and west of this body of water, and as far south as the Great Lakes west to Colorado, Nevada, and Oregon.[3][4]

The Northern Shoveler is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.[5] The conservation status of this bird is Least Concern.[1]

Contents [hide]
1 Taxonomy
2 Description
3 Behaviour
4 Habitat and range
5 Footnotes


Taxonomy

This species was described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 under its current scientific name.[6] Usually placed in Anas like most dabbling ducks, it stands well apart from such species as the Mallard and together with the other shovelers and their relatives forms a "blue-winged" group that may warrant separation as genus Spatula.
No living subspecies are accepted today. Fossil bones of a very similar duck have been found in Early Pleistocene deposits at Dursunlu (Turkey). It is unresolved, however, how these birds were related to the Northern Shoveler of today; i.e., whether the differences noted were due to being a related species or paleosubspecies, or attributable to individual variation.[7]

 Description
Northern Shoveler in Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge
Female stretching after bathing in KolkataThis species is unmistakable in the northern hemisphere due to its large spatulate bill. The breeding male has a green head, white breast and chestnut belly and flanks. In flight, pale blue forewing feathers are revealed, separated from the green speculum by a white border. In early fall the male will have a white crescent on each side of the face.[4] In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake resembles the female.

The female is light brown, with plumage much like a female Mallard, but easily distinguished by the long broad bill, which is gray tinged with orange on cutting edge and lower mandible.[4] The female's forewing is grey.

They are 19 inches long (48 cm) and have a wingspan of 30 inches (76 cm) with a weight of 1.3 pounds (600 g).[3]

Behaviour In flightNorthern Shovelers feed by dabbling for plant food, often by swinging its bill from side to side and using the bill to strain food from the water. It also eats mollusks and insects in the nesting season.

The nest is a shallow depression on the ground, lined with plant material and down, usually close to water.

This is a fairly quiet species. The male has a clunking call, whereas the female has a Mallard-like quack.

 Habitat and range
This is a bird of open wetlands, such as wet grassland or marshes with some emergent vegetation.
This bird winters in southern Europe, Africa, northern South America, and the Malay Archipelago.[2] In North America it winters south of a line from Washington to Idaho and from New Mexico east to Kentucky, also along the Eastern Seaboard as far north as Massachusetts.[3][4] In the British Isles, home to more than 20% of the North Western European population, it is best known as a winter visitor, although it is more frequently seen in southern and eastern England, especially around the Ouse Washes, the Humber and the North Kent Marshes, and in much smaller numbers in Scotland and western parts of England. In winter, breeding birds move south, and are replaced by an influx of continental birds from further north.
This dabbling duck is strongly migratory and winters further south than its breeding range (so far so that there have been four reports in Australia)[citation needed]. It is not as gregarious as some dabbling ducks outside the breeding season and tends to form only small flocks.

Australasian Shoveler

The Australasian Shoveler (Anas rhynchotis) is a species of dabbling duck in the genus Anas. It ranges from 46–53 cm. It lives in heavily vegetated swamps. In Australia it is protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Act, 1974. They occur in southwestern and southeastern Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand[2].

The male has a blue-grey head with a vertical white crescent in front of the eyes.

The Australasian Shoveler has two subspecies:

A. rhynchotis rhynchotis Australian Shoveler, the nominate race, occurs in southwestern and southeastern Australia and Tasmania[2].
A. rhynchotis variegata New Zealand Shoveler, occurs in New Zealand[2].
The status of the Australasian Shoveler is Least Concern[1].
                                                     

Cape Shoveler

The Cape Shoveler Anas smithii formerly known as Cape Shoveller is a species of dabbling duck of the genus Anas. It is resident in South Africa, and uncommon further north in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, southern Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Zambia[1].
This 51–53 cm long duck is non-migratory, but undertakes some local seasonal movements. It is gregarious when not breeding, and may then form large flocks.
This species has a large spatulate bill. Adults have speckled grey-brown plumage and dull orange legs. As with many southern hemisphere ducks, the sexes appear similar, but the male has a paler head than the female, a pale blue forewing separated from the green speculum by a white border, and yellow eyes. The female's forewing is grey.
Cape Shoveler can only be confused with a vagrant female Northern Shoveler, but is much darker and stockier than that species.
It is a bird of open wetlands, such as wet grassland or marshes with some emergent vegetation, and feeds by dabbling for plant food, often by swinging its bill from side to side to strain food from the water. This bird also eats molluscs and insects in the nesting season. The nest is a shallow depression on the ground, lined with plant material and down, and usually close to water.
This is a fairly quiet species. The male has a cawick call, whereas the female has a Mallard-like quack.
The binomial name of this bird commemorates the zoologist Andrew Smith.
The status of the Cape Shoveler is Least Concern[1].

Red Shoveler

The Red Shoveler (Anas platalea), formerly known as Red Shoveller, is a species of dabbling duck of the genus Anas. It is found in southern South America, in Argentina, southern Peru, southern Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, southern Brazil, and Chile[2]. In winter the southernmost birds migrate north to Brazil and Peru.

The Red Shoveler is cinnamon in color with dark spots, and a green speculum. The head and neck are grayish. They have a large dark spatula shaped bill.

Their status is Least Concern[1]

Blue-winged Teal

The Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors) is a small dabbling duck. Its placement in Anas is by no means certain; a member of the "blue-winged" group also including the shovelers, it may be better placed in Spatula. It is not a teal in the strict sense, and also does not seem closely related to the Garganey as was for some time believed. Indeed, its color pattern is strikingly reminiscent of the Australasian Shoveler.

Blue-winged Teal Brazoria National Wildlife RefugeThe Blue-winged Teal is 40 cm (15.5") long, with a 58 cm (23") wingspan and weighs 370 g (13 oz). They have 2 molts per year and a third molt in their first year.[2] The adult male has a greyish blue head with a white facial crescent, a light brown body with a white patch near the rear and a black tail. The adult female is mottled brown, and has a whitish area at base of bill. Both sexes have sky-blue wing coverts, a green speculum, and yellow legs.[2][3]
Their breeding habitat is marshes and ponds throughout north and central North America. Their range is all of North America except western and northern Alaska, northern Yukon Territory, northern Northwest Territory, Northeastern Canada. They are rare in the desert southwest, and the west coast.[2][3] The nest is a shallow depression on the ground lined with grass and down, usually surrounded by vegetation.

They migrate in flocks to Central and South America. Some birds winter on the Gulf Coast and coastal California.[2][3] During migration, some birds may fly long distances over open ocean. They are occasional vagrants to Europe, where their yellow legs are a distinction from other small ducks like Common Teal and Garganey. DNA analysis of this species has revealed it is very close genetically to the Cinnamon Teal.

These birds feed by dabbling in shallow water at the edge of marshes or open water.[2] They mainly eat plants; their diet may include molluscs and aquatic insects.
The call of the male is a short whistle; the female's call is a soft quack.[2]

Contents [hide]
1 Distribution
2 Plant communities
3 Major life events
4 Preferred habitat
5 Cover requirements
6 Food habits
7 Predators


DistributionThe blue-winged teal breeds from east-central Alaska and southern Mackenzie District east to southern Quebec and southwestern Newfoundland. In the contiguous United States it breeds from northeast California east to central Louisiana, central Tennessee, and the Atlantic Coast.[4][5] The western blue-winged teal inhabits that part of the breeding range west of the Appalachian Mountains. The Atlantic blue-winged teal nests along the Atlantic Coast from New Brunswick to Pea Island, North Carolina.[6]

The blue-winged teal winters from southern California to western and southern Texas, the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic Coast and south to Central and South America. It is often seen wintering as far south as Brazil and central Chile.[4]
Plant communities

The blue-winged teal is primarily found in the northern prairies and parklands. It is the most abundant duck in the mixed-grass prairies of the Dakotas and the prairie provinces of Canada. The blue-winged teal is also found in wetlands of boreal forest associations, shortgrass prairies, tallgrass prairies, and deciduous woodlands.[6]

This duck commonly inhabits wetland communities dominated by bulrush (Scirpus spp.), cattail (Typha spp.), pondweed (Potamogeton spp.),　sedges (Carex spp.), widgeongrass (Ruppia maritima), and other emergent and aquatic vegetation [6][7]. During molting, it often remains among extensive beds of bulrushes and cattails. The blue-winged teal favors areas dominated by bluegrass (Poa spp.) for nesting. Hayfields and plant communities of buckbrush (Ceonothus cuneatus) and sedges are also important as nest sites.[6]
Major life events
Males and a female, Richmond, British Columbia
In flight, Ladner, British ColumbiaThe onset of courtship among immature blue-winged teal often starts in late January or early February. In areas south of the breeding grounds, blue-winged teal are more active in courtship during the spring migration than are most other ducks.[6]

Blue-winged teal are among the last dabbling ducks to nest [6], generally nesting between April 15 and May 15 [6][7]. Few nests are started after mid-July.[6] Chronology of nesting can vary from year to year as a result of weather conditions. At Delta Marshes, Manitoba, blue-winged teal nesting was delayed a week in 1950 due to abnormally cold weather.[6]

Blue-winged teal generally lay 10 to 12 eggs. Delayed nesting and renesting efforts have substantially smaller clutches, averaging five to six eggs. Clutch size can also vary with the age of the hen. Yearlings tend to lay smaller clutches.[6] Incubation takes 21 to 27 days [6][7][5]. Blue-winged teal are sexually mature after their first winter. During incubation, the drake leaves its mate and moves to suitable molting cover where it becomes flightless for a period of 3 to 4 weeks.

Blue-winged teal ducklings can walk to water within 12 hours after hatching but do not fledge until 6 to 7 weeks.[7][5]

Blue-winged teal are generally the first ducks south in the fall and the last ones north in the spring. Adult drakes depart the breeding grounds well before adult hens and immatures. Most blue-winged teal flocks seen after mid-September are composed largely of adult hens and immatures.[6]

The northern regions experience a steady decline in blue-winged teal populations from early September until early November. Blue-winged teal in central migration areas tend to remain through September, then diminish rapidly during October, with small numbers remaining until December. Large numbers of blue-winged teal appear on wintering grounds in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas in September.[6]

Preferred habitat
Males, Sarpy County, NebraskaBlue-winged teal inhabit shoreline more often than open water and prefer calm water or sluggish currents to fast water. They inhabit inland marshes, lakes, ponds, pools, and shallow streams with dense emergent vegetation [4]. In coastal areas, breeding occurs in salt-marsh meadows with adjoining ponds or creeks [5]. Blue-winged teal use rocks protruding above water, muskrat houses, trunks or limbs of fallen trees, bare stretches of shoreline, or mud flats for resting sites [4].

Blue-winged teal winter on shallow inland freshwater marshes and brackish and saltwater marshes [4]. They build their nests on dry ground in grassy sites such as bluegrass meadows, hayfields, and sedge meadows. They will also nest in areas with very short, sparse vegetation [8]. Blue-winged teal generally nest within several hundred yards of open water; however, nests have been found as far as 1 mile (1.6 km) away from water.[6] Where the habitat is good, they nest communally [4].

 Cover requirements

Blue-winged teal often use heavy growth of bulrushes and cattails as escape cover [7]. Grasses, sedges, and hayfields provide nesting cover for these ducks [8]. Fritzell [8] reported that blue-winged teal nests located in light to sparse cover were more successful than those in heavy cover. Nesting success was 47% on grazed areas and 14% on ungrazed areas.[8]
 Food habits
Blue-winged teal are surface feeders and prefer to feed on mud flats, in fields, or in shallow water where there is floating and shallowly submerged vegetation plus abundant small aquatic animal life. They mostly eat vegetative matter consisting of seeds or stems and leaves of sedge, grass, pondweed, smartweed (Polygonum spp.), duckweed (Lemna spp.), widgeongrass, and muskgrass (Chara spp.) [6][4][5]. The seeds of plants that grow on mud flats, such as nutgrass (Cyperus spp.), smartweed, millet (Panicum spp.), and rice cut-grass (Leersia oryzoides), are avidly consumed by this duck.[6] One-fourth of the food consumed by blue-winged teals is animal matter such as mollusks, crustaceans, and insects [6][4][5].
Predators
Common predators of blue-winged teal include humans, snakes, snapping turtles (Chlycha serpentina), dogs, eastern crows (Corvus brachyrhnchos), magpies (Pica spp.), ground squirrels (Citellus spp.), coyotes (Canis latrans), red foxes (Vulpes fulva), gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), raccoons (Procyon lotor), long-tailed weasels (Mustela frenata), minks (Mustela vison), striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis), spotted skunks (Spilogale putorius), and badgers (Taxidea taxus) [6][7].
During one study, about half of the nest failures of blue-winged teal were caused by mammals. Striped and spotted skunks were responsible for two-thirds of these losses. All nest losses caused by birds were attributed to either crows or magpies.[6]

Silver Teal

The Silver Teal (Anas versicolor) or Versicolor Teal is a species of dabbling duck in the genus Anas. It breeds in South America.

Between April and June they prefer reed beds and will lay 6 to 10 creamy-pink eggs. As with swans and geese, both parents will rear the ducklings.[citation needed] A pair may bond long term. It lives on fresh water in small groups, and feeds primarily on vegetable matter such as seeds and aquatic plants.[citation needed]

The Silver Teal's range includes southern Bolivia, southern Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands[1], and the Falkland Islands[2]. The southernmost birds migrate to southern Brazil in the winter.

Silver Teals are on the whole placid ducks but may be protective of eggs, young and females.[citation needed]

They have a black cap that extends below the eyes, and a bluish bill with a yellow tip. They also have a green speculum with a white border.[3]
The Puna Teal was previously regarded as a subspecies of this bird. Currently, there are two subspecies:

A. versicolor versicolor Northern Silver Teal located in Paraguay, southern Bolivia, and southern Brazil[2].
A. versicolor fretensis Southern Silver Teal located in southern Chile, Argentina, and the Falkland Islands[2].

Garganey

The Garganey, Anas querquedula, is a small dabbling duck. It breeds in much of Europe and western Asia, but is strictly migratory, with the entire population moving to southern Africa and Australasia in winter,[2] where large flocks can occur. This species was first described by Linnaeus in 1758 under its current scientific name.[3] Like other small ducks such as the Common Teal, this species rises easily from the water with a fast twisting wader-like flight.

Their breeding habitat is grassland adjacent to shallow marshes and steppe lakes.
Description

The adult male is unmistakable, with its brown head and breast with a broad white crescent over the eye. The rest of the plumage is grey, with loose grey scapular feathers It has a grey bill and legs. In flight it shows a pale blue speculum with a white border. When swimming it will show prominent white edges on its tertials. His crown (anatomy) is dark and face is reddish-brown.[4]Some care is needed in separating the brown female from the similar Common Teal, but the stronger face markings and more frequent head-shaking when dabbling are good indicators. Confusion with the female of the Blue-winged Teal is also possible, but the head and bill shape is different, and the latter species has yellow legs. Pale eyebrow, dark eye line, pale lore spot bordered by a second dark line.[4]

These birds feed mainly by skimming rather than upending.

The male has a distinctive crackling mating call; the female is rather silent for a female duck, but can manage a feeble "quack".

Garganey are rare breeding birds in the British Isles, with most breeding in quiet marshes in Norfolk and Suffolk.

The Garganey is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies. The status of the Garganey is Least Concern[1]

Etymology

The common English name dates from the 17th century and comes from dialect Italian gargenei, a variant of garganello, which ultimately comes from the Late Latin gargala "tracheal artery".[5] The English usage owes its origins to Conrad Gesner who used the Italian name in the third volume of his Historiae Animalium (History of Animals) 1555.[6]

Baikal Teal

The Baikal Teal (Anas formosa), also called the Bimaculate Duck or Squawk Duck, is a dabbling duck that breeds within the forest zone of eastern Siberia from the Yenisey basin eastwards to Kamchatka, northern Koryak, eastern Magadan Oblast, northern Khabarovsk Krai, southeastern and northern Sakha east central Irkutsk Oblast, and northern Krasnoyarsk Krai. It is a migratory species, wintering in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, northern and eastern China, from Beijing down the coast to the Vietnam border, and west to Yunnan then north to Chongqing and Henan.[1][2] Molecular[3] and behavioral[4] data suggest that it has no close relatives among living ducks and should be placed in a distinct genus; it is possibly closest to such species as the Garganey and the Northern Shoveler.

At between 39 and 43 centimetres (15 and 17 in), this duck is slightly larger and longer-tailed than the Common Teal. The breeding male is unmistakable, with a striking green nape, yellow and black auriculars, neck, throat. It has a dark crown, and its breast is light brown with dark spots. It has long dropping dark scapulars, and its grey sides are set off on the front and rear with white bars.

The female looks similar to a female Green-winged Teal but with a longer tail, and a distinctive white spot at the base of the bill and a white throat that angles to the back of the eye. She also has a distinct light eyebrow bordered by a darker crown. The underwing is similar to the Green-winged Teal also, but has a darker leading edge. The green speculum has an indistinct cinnamon-buff inner border.[5] Some "females" have "bridle" markings on their faces, but it has been suggested that at least some of these bridled "females," if not all, are in fact juvenile males.[5] The juvenile has a plumage similar to that of the female and can be distinguished from the Common Teal by the pale loral spot.

In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake looks more like the female, but plumage is a much richer reddish-brown (rufous) colour.

It breeds in pools on the tundra edge and within swampy forests. In winter it is found on lowland fresh waters.

This species is classified as Vulnerable due to hunting and destruction of its wintering wetland habitats.[1] However, recent books state that the species is making a good comeback.[5]

There are approximately 300,000 baikal teal in the world.[6]

Hispaniolan Woodpecker

The Hispaniolan Woodpecker, Melanerpes striatus, is a medium sized woodpecker endemic to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.

Their back is covered in yellow and black stripes. Males have a dark red stripe from their forehead to their neck while females the red stripe extends from the nape to the neck only. Their tail base is brilliantly red while the tail itself is black. The rump is olive-grey.

Unlike most woodpeckers the Hispaniolan Woodpecker is a social species that takes advantage of having a large number of individual adult birds in the colony to protect a nesting bank or tree.

Their habitat, which is restricted to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, extends from the coasts, over the deserts to the mountains of the island.

White-fronted Woodpecker
The White-fronted Woodpecker (Melanerpes cactorum) is a species of bird in the Picidae family.
It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.

Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, and subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland

Yellow-fronted Woodpecker
The Yellow-fronted Woodpecker (Melanerpes flavifrons) is a species of bird in the Picidae family. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and heavily degraded former forest

Black-cheeked Woodpecker

The Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Melanerpes pucherani, is a resident breeding bird from southeastern Mexico south to western Ecuador.

This woodpecker occurs in the higher levels of wet forests, semi-open woodland and old second growth. It nests in an unlined hole 6–30 m high in a dead tree. The clutch is two to four glossy white eggs, incubated by both sexes. The binomial commemorates the French zoologist Jacques Pucheran.

The Black-cheeked Woodpecker feeds on insects, but will take substantial quantities of fruit and nectar.

This common and conspicuous species gives a rattling krrrrrl call and both sexes drum on territory.

Description

The adult is 18.5 cm long and weighs 63 g. It has black upperparts with white barring on the back, white spotting on the wings and a white rump. The tail is black with some white barring, and the underparts are pale buff-olive with a red central belly. There is a black patch through the eys and on the cheeks, a yellow forehead, and a red nape. The crown is red in the male and black in the female. Young birds are duller, have less white above and less red on the belly.

Acorn Woodpecker
The Acorn woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus) is a medium-sized woodpecker, 21 cm long with an average weight of 85 g.
The adult has a black head, back, wings and tail, white forehead, throat, belly and rump. The eyes are white. The adult male has a red cap starting at the forehead, whereas females have a black area between the forehead and the cap. The white neck, throat and forehead patches are distinctive identifiers.
Breeding communities
The breeding habitat is forested areas with oaks in the hills of coastal California and the southwestern United States south to Colombia. This species may occur at low elevations in the north of its range, but rarely below 1000m in Central America, and it breeds up to the timberline. The breeding pair excavate a nest in a large cavity in a dead tree or a dead part of a tree. A group of adults may participate in nesting activities: Field studies have shown that breeding groups range from monogamous pairs to breeding collectives of seven males and three females, plus up to 10 nonbreeding helpers. Young have been found with multiple paternity.[1]

Food and homes

Acorn woodpeckers, as their name implies, depend heavily on acorns for food. In some parts of their range (e.g., California), the woodpeckers create granaries or "acorn trees" by drilling holes in dead trees, dead branches, telephone poles and wooden buildings. The woodpeckers then collect acorns and find a hole that is just the right size for the acorn. As acorns dry out, they are moved to smaller holes and granary maintenance requires a significant amount of the bird's time. They also feed on insects, sap, and fruit.
Defense and storing

The acorns are visible, and the group defends the tree against potential cache robbers like Steller's Jays and Western Scrub Jays. Acorns are such an important resource to the California populations that Acorn Woodpeckers may nest in the fall to take advantage of the fall acorn crop, a rare behavior in birds [2]. Acorn Woodpeckers can also be seen sallying from tree limbs to catch insects, eating fruit and seeds, and drilling holes to drink sap. The Acorn Woodpecker will use any human-made structures to store acorns, drilling holes into fence posts, utility poles, buildings, and even automobile radiators. Occasionally the woodpecker will put acorns into places where it cannot get them out. Woodpeckers put 220 kg (485 lb) of acorns into a wooden water tank in Arizona. In parts of its range the Acorn Woodpecker does not construct a granary tree, but instead stores acorns in natural holes and cracks in bark. If the stores are eaten, the woodpecker will move to another area, even going from Arizona to Mexico to spend the winter.

Breeding behavior

In California, Acorn Woodpeckers breed from April – June. An Acorn Woodpecker group may consist of 1-7 male breeders that compete to mate with 1-3 females. The nest is excavated in a large tree, which may also be a granary tree. Tree cavities are created in both dead and living trees and snags and nest holes are reused for many years. Females typically lay 5 eggs that are incubated for 11–14 days. Male and females incubate and tend to their young. Non-breeding helpers (young from previous years) often help with incubation and other parental duties. The young leave the nest and take their first flight at approximately 30–32 days after hatching and return to the nest to be fed for several weeks.

Breeding female

In groups with more than one breeding female, the females put their eggs into a single nest cavity. A female usually destroys any eggs in the nest before she starts to lay, and more than one third of all eggs laid in joint nests are destroyed. Once all the females start to lay, they stop removing eggs.

This bird is a permanent resident throughout its range. They may relocate to another area if acorns are not readily available. It is sedentary and very sociable.
Threats and degradation

Acorn Woodpeckers like many other species are threatened by habitat loss and degradation. Competition for nest cavities by non-native species is an ongoing threat in urbanized areas. Conservation of this species is dependent on the maintenance of functional ecosystems that provide the full range of resources upon which the species depends. These include mature forests with oaks capable of producing large mast crops and places for the woodpeckers to nest, roost, and store mast. Residents are encouraged to preserve mature oak and pine-oak stands of trees and to provide dead limbs and snags for nesting, roosting and granary sites to help preserve the Acorn Woodpeckers population.

Popular culture

Walter Lantz is believed to have patterned the call of his cartoon character Woody Woodpecker on that of the acorn woodpecker, while patterning his appearance on that of the Pileated Woodpecker which has a prominent crest.[3]

Red-headed Woodpecker

The Red-headed Woodpecker, Melanerpes erythrocephalus, is a small or medium-sized woodpecker from temperate North America. Their breeding habitat is open country across southern Canada and the eastern-central United States.

Taxonomy

The Red-headed Woodpecker was one of the many species originally described by Linnaeus in his 18th-century work Systema Naturae.^[1] The specific epithet is derived from the Ancient Greek words erythros 'red' and kephalos 'head'.^[2]

There are three subspecies recognized:

• M. e. brodkorbi
• M. e. caurinus
• M. e. erythrocephalus

Description

Adults are strikingly tri-colored, with a black back and tail and a red head and neck. Their underparts are mainly white. The wings are black with white secondary remiges. Adult males and females are identical in plumage.[3] Juveniles are similarly shaded, but are mottled with brown.[3] Non-birders may often mistakenly identify Red-bellied Woodpeckers as Red-headeds, whose range overlaps somewhat with that of the Red-headed woodpecker. While red-bellied woodpeckers have some bright red on the backs of their necks and heads, red-headed woodpeckers have a much deeper red that covers their entire heads and necks, as well as a different overall plumage pattern.

Puerto Rican Woodpecker
The Puerto Rican Woodpecker (Melanerpes portoricensis) is the only woodpecker endemic to the archipelago of Puerto Rico and is one of the five species of the Melanerpes genus that occur in the Antilles. Furthermore, it is the only resident species of the Picidae family in Puerto Rico. The species is common in the main island of Puerto Rico and rare in the island of Vieques.

Description

The Puerto Rican Woodpecker has a black body and a bright red throat and breast. It has a white patch that runs across the head from eye to eye. Its flanks and lower body have a light tangerine coloration. As with the majority of birds sexual dimorphism is present in this species. The males' throat and breast are more brightly colored than the females' with females tending to be all-around duller in coloration. There is also a substantial (~18%) difference in bill length between sexes.[2] Also males are slightly bigger than females. Its average weight is 56.0 grams.[3] Its body length varies between 23 and 27 centimetres.

The Puerto Rican Woodpecker is a common and widely distributed species in Puerto Rico, mainly occurring in forests, coffee plantations, mangroves, palm tree groves, parks and gardens. Besides occurring in Puerto Rico it once inhabited the island of St. Croix. This stems from the fact that during the Pleistocene epoch Puerto Rico, Vieques, Culebra, St. Croix and the other Virgin Islands constituted a single landmass. It is believed that at this time the species extended its range to St.Croix and Vieques.[4]

The Puerto Rican Woodpecker is said to resemble the behavior and structure of the North American Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus).[4] Like the majority of woodpeckers this species uses its bill to drill holes in trunks in search of prey. The principal component of its diet are insects such as ants, beetle larvae and others. Fruits are also important, composing one-quarter of its diet. Rarely it may eat scorpions, geckos and coquís. Females lay from 1 to 6 white eggs in cavities carved by males. The nests of M. portoricensis are used by other Puerto Rican endemic birds such as the Puerto Rican Flycatcher (Myiarchus antillarum) and the Yellow-shouldered Blackbird (Agelaius xanthomus).[5]

Lewis's Woodpecker
The Lewis's Woodpecker, Melanerpes lewis, is a large North American species of woodpecker which was named for Meriwether Lewis, one of the explorers who surveyed the areas bought by the United States of America during the Louisiana Purchase.
Contents [hide]
1 Description
2 Range and habitat
3 Feeding
4 Breeding
Description

One of the largest species of American woodpeckers, Lewis's Woodpecker can be as large as 10 to 11 inches in length. It is mainly reddish-breasted, blackish-green in color with a black rump. It has a gray collar and upper breast, with a pinkish belly, and a red face. The wings are much broader than those of other woodpeckers, and it flies at a much more sluggish pace with slow, but even flaps similar to those of a crow.
Range and habitat

Lewis's Woodpecker is locally common, dwelling mostly in open pine woodlands, and other areas with scattered trees. Unlike other American woodpeckers, it enjoys sitting in the open as opposed to sitting in heavy tree cover. It ranges mostly in the western to central United States, but can winter as far south as the US border with Mexico and summer as far north as Canada.
Feeding

Lewis's Woodpecker engages in some rather un-woodpecker-like behavior in its gregarious feeding habits. Although it does forage for insects by boring into trees with its chisel-like bill, the bird also catches insects in the air during flight, (typical insect hawking), a habit that only a few other woodpeckers, such as the Acorn woodpecker, the Red-headed Woodpecker and the Northern flicker, engage in. Lewis's Woodpecker also feeds on berries and nuts, and will even shell and store nuts in cracks and holes in wood to store until winter.

Breeding

Lewis's Woodpecker nests in a cavity excavated from a dead tree branch. The nest is constructed mainly by the male. The female will lay between 5 and 9 eggs, which are plain white in coloration. Incubation is done by both sexes – the female sitting during the day and the male sitting at night – and lasts approximately 12 days, after which the young will hatch. The young leave the nest 4 to 5 weeks after hatching.