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.