NORTHERN SHOVELER

 

 (1218*)                        NORTHERN SHOVELER                  Spatula clypeata

USA               25

The northern shoveler known simply in Britain as the shoveler, is a common and widespread duck. It breeds in northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and across most of North America, wintering in southern Europe, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. It 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.

BLUE-WINGED TEAL

 1374                     BLUE-WINGED TEAL                  Spatula discors

USA              24

The blue-winged teal (is a species of bird in the duck, goose, and swan family Anatidae. One of the smaller members of the dabbling duck group, it occurs in North America, where it breeds from southern Alaska to Nova Scotia, and south to northern Texas. It winters along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and south into the Caribbean islands and Central America.

Blue-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.  In coastal areas, breeding occurs in salt-marsh meadows with adjoining ponds or creeks. 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

MOTTLED DUCK

1373                 MOTTLED DUCK                Anas fulvigula

USA       23

The mottled duck or mottled mallard is a medium-sized species of dabbling duck. It is intermediate in appearance between the female mallard and the American black duck. It is closely related to those species, and is sometimes erroneously considered a subspecies of the former.

Along the Gulf of Mexico coast, the mottled duck is one of the most frequently banded waterfowl. This is due in part to the fact that it is mostly non-migratory. Approximately one out of every 20 mottled ducks is banded, making it an extremely prized and sought after bird among hunters.

TUFTED DUCK

Photographed at Werribee Water Treatment Plant (WTP), Victoria, January 2019

1266                   TUFTED DUCK                   Aythya fuligula 

AUSTRALIA               765

From northern Eurasia; occasionally found as winter migrant on coasts of USA and Canada. Migratory within their range. Feed mainly by diving; eat molluscs, aquatic insects and some plants, sometimes feeding at night. Breeding habitat close to marshes and lakes with plenty of vegetation to conceal nests; also found on coastal lagoons, shorelines and sheltered ponds.

NOTE:   First record for Australia.

SPOTTED WHISTLING DUCK

Photographed on the Daintree River, Queensland, November 2017

1227                  SPOTTED WHISTLING DUCK              Dendrocygna guttata

AUSTRALIA               720

Ranges throughout southern Philippines, Wallacea and New Guinea; has gradually been colonising northern Australia; now down as far as Daintree, though has been seen in Cairns.

Photographed at Wonga Beach, Queensland, November 2017

GREY DUCK

Photographed at Miranda, New Zealand, June 2017

(*  142)                   GREY DUCK             Anas superciliosa

NEW ZEALAND                 85

Also known as Pacific Black Duck in Australia. 55 cm. Very rare native, mainly in remote wetlands, including forest lakes and rivers, along west of South Island and north and central east of North Island.

BLUE DUCK

Photographed at Turangi, New Zealand, June 2017

1214                BLUE DUCK                Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos 

NEW ZEALAND              79

Uncommon endemic with 2000-3000 birds in fast-flowing mountain streams and rivers, mainly in native forest or tussock land, occasionally on lakes. 53 cm.

PLUMED WHISTLING DUCK

Photographed at Napier, New Zealand, June 2017

(*   103)             PLUMED WHISTLING DUCK                  Dendrocygna eytoni 

NEW ZEALAND              73

Found in grasslands near wetlands. 50 cm. Rare Australian vagrant.

COTTON PYGMY-GOOSE

Subspecies coromandelianus, March 2017

(*  228)              COTTON PYGMY-GOOSE               Nettapus coromandelianus

SRI LANKA              105

Found in freshwater tanks and large ponds partly covered in weed. 30-37 cm. Uncommon breeding resident in lowlands.

LESSER WHISTLING-DUCK

Photographed March 2017

(*   901)               LESSER WHISTLING-DUCK                  Dendrocygna javanica

SRI LANKA               46

Found on freshwater marshes and tanks. 42 cm. Common breeding resident throughout lowlands.

LESSER WHISTLING DUCK

Photographed in Chitin NP, Nepal, March 2017

(*  901)                  LESSER WHISTLING DUCK                Dendrocygna javanica

NEPAL            (91)

Found in flooded grassland and paddy fields, freshwater marshes, and shallow pools and lakes with plentiful fringe cover, emergent vegetation and partially submerged trees. 42 cm. Local breeding resident.

NORTHERN PINTAIL

Photographed on Cocos Islands December 2016

943           NORTHERN PINTAIL          Anas acuta

AUSTRALIA (Cocos Islands)           670

Found in coastal wetlands, farmlands, reservoirs. 50-65 cm. Breeds Eurasia, North America; migrates to Africa, China, Central America. First record in Australia, Chandala Swamp, NE of Perth, WA 1985, other records since.

LESSER WHISTLING DUCK

Photographed in Singapore November 2016

901            LESSER WHISTLING DUCK              Dendrocygna javanica

SINGAPORE               (45)

Uncommon resident of lakes and marshes with reedy fringes; also observed in small ponds  in parks and secondary scrub. 40 cm. Distribution: much of Indian sub-continent, S China and Southeast Asia, east to Greater and Lesser Sundas.

WANDERING WHISTLING-DUCK

522          WANDERING WHISTLING-DUCK              Dendrocygna arcuata

Australia        (363)

Also called Diving Whistling-duck. 55-61 cm. Ranges across tropical and subtropical n. Australia, from Fitroy R. (WA), to se. Q; ; NSW, Vic., sw. WA. Also in Philippines, Indonesia, PNG and Pacific Islands. habitat is well-vegetated lagoons and swamps, flooded grassland, pools in floodplains, river margins, well-vegetated large dams, occasionally tidal areas.

FRECKLED DUCK

Photographed at Forbes, NSW, October 2014

408          FRECKLED DUCK          Stictonetta naevosa

Australia          (282)

Also known as Monkey Duck. 48-59 cm. Found in large well-vegetated swamps, in dry periods moves to open lakes. Ranges across sw WA and se quarter of mainland Australia. Rare, irruptive, nomadic.

Female, photographed near Werribee, Victoria February 2015

WHITE-FACED WHISTLING DUCK

363            WHITE-FACED WHISTLING DUCK             Dendrocygna viduata

South Africa         (56)

Breeds in sub-Saharan Afica and much of South America.