American black duck | |
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American black duck in flight | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Anseriformes |
Family: | Anatidae |
Genus: | Anas |
Species: | A. rubripes |
Binomial name | |
Anas rubripes Brewster, 1902 | |
Breeding Year-round Nonbreeding | |
Synonyms | |
Anas obscura Gmelin, 1789 |
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The American black duck (Anas rubripes) is a large dabbling duck in the family Anatidae. It was described by William Brewster in 1902. It is the heaviest species in the genus Anas , weighing 720–1,640 g (1.59–3.62 lb) on average and measuring 54–59 cm (21–23 in) in length with an 88–95 cm (35–37 in) wingspan. It somewhat resembles the female and eclipse male mallard in coloration, but has a darker plumage. The male and female are generally similar in appearance, but the male's bill is yellow while the female's is dull green with dark marks on the upper mandible . It is native to eastern North America. During the breeding season, it is usually found in coastal and freshwater wetlands from Saskatchewan to the Atlantic in Canada and the Great Lakes and the Adirondacks in the United States. It is a partially migratory species, mostly wintering in the east-central United States, especially in coastal areas.
It interbreeds regularly and extensively with the mallard, to which it is closely related. The female lays six to fourteen oval eggs, which have smooth shells and come in varied shades of white and buff green. Hatching takes 30 days on average. Incubation usually takes 25 to 26 days, with both sexes sharing duties, although the male usually defends the territory until the female reaches the middle of her incubation period. It takes about six weeks to fledge. Once the eggs hatch, the hen leads the brood to rearing areas with abundant invertebrates and vegetation.
The American black duck is considered to be a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), although some populations of the species are in decline. It has long been valued as a game bird. Habitat loss due to drainage, global warming, filling of wetlands due to urbanization and rising sea levels are major reasons for the declining population of the American black duck. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has been purchasing and managing the habitat of this species in many areas to support the migratory stopover, wintering and breeding populations. The Atlantic Coast Joint Venture also protects habitat through restoration and land acquisition projects, mostly within their wintering and breeding areas.
American ornithologist William Brewster described the American black duck as Anas obscura rubripes, for "red-legged black duck", [2] in his landmark article "An undescribed form of the black duck (Anas obscura)," in The Auk in 1902, to distinguish between the two kinds of black ducks found in New England. One of them was described as being comparatively small, with brownish legs and an olivaceous or dusky bill, and the other as being comparatively larger, with a lighter skin tone, bright red legs and a clear yellow bill. [2] The larger of the two was described as Anas obscura by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1789 [1] in the 13th edition of the Systema Naturae , Part 2, and he based it on the "Dusky Duck" of Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. [2] The current scientific name, Anas rubripes, is derived from Latin, with Anas meaning "duck" and rubripes coming from ruber, "red", and pes, "foot". [3]
Pennant, in Arctic Zoology, Volume 2, described this duck as coming "from the province of New York" and having "a long and narrow dusky bill, tinged with blue: chin white: neck pale brown, streaked downwards with dusky lines." [2] In a typical obscura, characteristics such as greenish black, olive green or dusky olive bill; olivaceous brown legs with at most one reddish tinge; the nape and pileum nearly uniformly dark; spotless chin and throat; fine linear and dusky markings on the neck and sides of the head, rather than blackish, do not vary with age or season. [2]
The American black duck weighs 720–1,640 g (1.59–3.62 lb) and measures 54–59 cm (21–23 in) in length with a 88–95 cm (35–37 in) wingspan. [4] This species has the highest mean body mass in the genus Anas, with a sample of 376 males averaging 1.4 kg (3.1 lb) and 176 females averaging 1.1 kg (2.4 lb), although its size is typically quite similar to that of the familiar mallard. [5] [6] The American black duck somewhat resembles the female mallard in coloration, although the black duck's plumage is darker. [7] Males and females are generally similar in appearance, but the male's bill is yellow while the female's is dull green with dark marks on the upper mandible , [8] which is occasionally flecked with black. [9] [10] The head is brown, but is slightly lighter in tone than the darker brown body. The cheeks and throat are streaked brown, with a dark streak going through the crown and dark eye. [7] The speculum feathers are iridescent violet-blue with predominantly black margins. [8] The fleshy orange feet of the duck have dark webbing. [11]
Both male and female American black ducks produce similar calls to their close relative, the mallard, with the female producing a loud sequence of quacks which falls in pitch. [12]
In flight, the white lining of the underwings can be seen in contrast to the blackish underbody and upperside. [7] [13] The purple speculum lacks white bands at the front and rear, and rarely has a white trailing edge. A dark crescent is visible on the median underwing primary coverts. [13]
Juveniles resemble adult females, but have broken narrow pale edges of underpart feathers, which give a slightly streaked rather than scalloped appearance, and the overall appearance is browner rather than uniformly blackish. Juvenile males have brownish-orange feet while juvenile females have brownish feet and a dusky greyish-green bill. [13]
The American black duck is endemic to eastern North America. [14] In Canada, the range extends from northeastern Saskatchewan to Newfoundland and Labrador. [7] In the United States, it is found in northern Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Connecticut, Vermont, South Dakota, central West Virginia, Maine and on the Atlantic coast to North Carolina. [7] [15]
The American black duck is a habitat generalist as it is associated with tidal marshes and present throughout the year in salt marshes from the Gulf of Maine to coastal Virginia. [16] It usually prefers freshwater and coastal wetlands throughout northeastern America, including brackish marshes, estuaries and edges of backwater ponds and rivers lined by speckled alder. [7] [15] It also inhabits beaver ponds, shallow lakes with sedges and reeds, bogs in open boreal and mixed hardwood forests, as well as forested swamps. [15] Populations in Vermont have also been found in glacial kettle ponds surrounded by bog mats. [15] During winter, the American black duck mostly inhabits brackish marshes bordering bays, agricultural marshes, flooded timber, agricultural fields, estuaries and riverine areas. [15] Ducks usually take shelter from hunting and other disturbances by moving to brackish and fresh impoundments on conservation land. [4]
The American black duck is an omnivorous species [17] with a diverse diet. [18] It feeds by dabbling in shallow water and grazing on land. [17] Its plant diet primarily includes a wide variety of wetland grasses and sedges, and the seeds, stems, leaves and root stalks of aquatic plants, such as eelgrass, pondweed and smartweed. [7] [8] Its animal diet includes mollusks, snails, amphipods, insects, mussels and small fishes. [17] [18]
During the breeding season, the diet of the American black duck consists of approximately 80% plant food and 20% animal food. The animal food diet increases to 85% during winter. [17] During nesting, the proportion of invertebrates increases. [8] Ducklings mostly eat water invertebrates for the first 12 days after hatching, including aquatic snowbugs, snails, mayflies, dragonflies, beetles, flies, caddisflies and larvae. After this, they shift to seeds and other plant food. [17]
The breeding habitat includes alkaline marshes, acid bogs, lakes, ponds, rivers, marshes, brackish marshes and the margins of estuaries and other aquatic environments in northern Saskatchewan, Manitoba, across Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic Canadian Provinces, plus the Great Lakes and the Adirondacks in the United States. [19] It is partially migratory, and many winter in the east-central United States, especially coastal areas; some remain year-round in the Great Lakes region. [20] This duck is a rare vagrant to Great Britain and Ireland, where over the years several birds have settled in and bred with the local mallard. [21] The resulting hybrid can present considerable identification difficulties. [21]
Nest sites are well-concealed on the ground, often in uplands. Egg clutches have six to fourteen oval eggs, [11] which have smooth shells and come in varied shades of white and buff green. [19] On average, they measure 59.4 mm (2.34 in) long, 43.2 mm (1.70 in) wide and weigh 56.6 g (0.125 lb). [19] Hatching takes 30 days on average. [11] The incubation period varies, [19] but usually takes 25 to 26 days. [22] Both sexes share duties, although the male usually defends the territory until the female reaches the middle of her incubation period. [22] It takes about six weeks to fledge. [22] Once the eggs hatch, the hen leads the brood to rearing areas with abundant invertebrates and vegetation. [22]
The American black duck interbreeds regularly and extensively with the mallard, to which it is closely related. [23] Some authorities even consider the black duck to be a subspecies of the mallard instead of a separate species. Mank et al. argue that this is in error as the extent of hybridization alone is not a valid means to delimitate Anas species. [24]
It has been proposed that the American black duck and the mallard were formerly separated by habitat preference, with the American black duck's dark plumage giving it a selective advantage in shaded forest pools in eastern North America, and the mallard's lighter plumage giving it an advantage in the brighter, more open prairie and plains lakes. [25] According to this view, recent deforestation in the east and tree planting on the plains has broken down this habitat separation, leading to the high levels of hybridization now observed. [26] However, rates of past hybridization are unknown in this and most other avian hybrid zones, and it is merely presumed in the case of the American black duck that past hybridization rates were lower than those seen today. Also, many avian hybrid zones are known to be stable and longstanding despite the occurrence of extensive interbreeding. [23] The American black duck and the local mallard are now very hard to distinguish by means of microsatellite comparisons, even if many specimens are sampled. [27] Contrary to this study's claims, the question of whether the American haplotype is an original mallard lineage is far from resolved. Their statement, "Northern black ducks are now no more distinct from mallards than their southern conspecifics" only holds true in regard to the molecular markers tested. [24] As birds indistinguishable according to the set of microsatellite markers still can look different, there are other genetic differences that were simply not tested in the study. [24]
In captivity studies, it has been discovered that the hybrids follow Haldane's rule, with hybrid females often dying before they reach sexual maturity, thereby supporting the case for the American black duck being a distinct species. [23] [28]
The apex nest predators of the American black duck include American crows, gulls and raccoons, especially in tree nests. [17] Hawks and owls are also major predators of adults. Bullfrogs and snapping turtles eat many ducklings. [17] Ducklings often catch diseases caused by protozoan blood parasites transmitted by bites of insects such as blackflies. [17] They are also vulnerable to lead shot poisoning, known as plumbism, due to their bottom-foraging food habits. [17]
Since 1988, the American black duck has been rated as least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. [1] This is because the range of this species is extremely large, which is not near the threshold of vulnerable species. [1] In addition, the total population is large, and, although it is declining, it is not declining fast enough to make the species vulnerable. [1] It has long been valued as a game bird, being extremely wary and fast flying. [29] Habitat loss due to drainage, filling of wetlands due to urbanization, global warming and rising sea levels are major reasons for the declining population. [14] Some conservationists consider hybridization and competition with the mallard as an additional source of concern should this decline continue. [30] [31] Hybridization itself is not a major problem; natural selection makes sure that the best-adapted individuals have the most offspring. [32] However, the reduced viability of female hybrids causes some broods to fail in the long run due to the death of the offspring before reproducing themselves. [33] While this is not a problem in the plentiful mallard, it might place an additional strain on the American black duck's population. Recent research conducted for the Delta Waterfowl Foundation suggests that hybrids are a result of forced copulations and not a normal pairing choice by black hens. [34]
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has continued to purchase and manage habitat in many areas to support the migratory stopover, wintering and breeding populations of the American black duck. [14] In addition, the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge has purchased and restored over 1,000 acres of wetlands to provide stopover habitat for over 10,000 American black ducks during fall migration. [14] Also, the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture has been protecting the habitat of the American black duck through habitat restoration and land acquisition projects, mostly within their wintering and breeding areas. [14] In 2003, a Boreal Forest Conservation Framework was adopted by conservation organizations, industries and First Nations to protect the Canadian boreal forests, including the American black duck's eastern Canadian breeding range. [14]
The pintail or northern pintail is a duck species with wide geographic distribution that breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and North America. It is 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 conspecific duck Eaton's pintail is considered to be a separate species.
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.
The gadwall is a common and widespread dabbling duck in the family Anatidae.
The Eurasian wigeon or European wigeon, also known as the widgeon or the wigeon, is one of three species of wigeon in the dabbling duck genus Mareca. It is common and widespread within its Palearctic range.
The American wigeon, also known as the baldpate, is a species of dabbling duck found in North America. Formerly assigned to Anas, this species is classified with the other wigeons in the dabbling duck genus Mareca. It is the New World counterpart of the Eurasian wigeon.
The mallard or wild duck is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa. It has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa. This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae. Males (drakes) have green heads, while the females (hens) have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent purple or blue feathers called a speculum on their wings; males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers. The mallard is 50–65 cm (20–26 in) long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length. The wingspan is 81–98 cm (32–39 in) and the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm long. It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing 0.7–1.6 kg (1.5–3.5 lb). Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.
The Green-winged Teal or American Teal is a common and widespread duck that breeds in the northern areas of North America except on the Aleutian Islands. It was considered conspecific with the Eurasian teal for some time, but the two have since been split into separate species. The American Ornithological Society continues to debate this determination; however, nearly all other authorities consider it distinct based on behavioral, morphological, and molecular evidence. The scientific name is from Latin Anas, "duck" and carolinensis, "of Carolina".
The redhead is a medium-sized diving duck. The scientific name is derived from Greek aithuia, an unidentified seabird mentioned by authors including Hesychius and Aristotle, and Latin americana, of America. The redhead is 37 cm (15 in) long with an 84 cm (33 in) wingspan. Redhead weight ranges from 2.0 to 2.5 lbs, with males weighing an average of 2.4 lbs and females weighing an average of 2.1 lbs. It belongs to the genus Aythya, together with 11 other described species. The redhead and the common pochard form a sister group which together is sister to the canvasback.
The yellow-billed duck is a 51–58 cm long dabbling duck which is an abundant resident breeder in southern and eastern Africa. This duck is not migratory, but wanders in the dry season to find suitable waters. It is highly gregarious outside the breeding season and forms large flocks.
The Indian spot-billed duck is a species of large dabbling duck that is a non-migratory breeding duck throughout freshwater wetlands in the Indian subcontinent. The name is derived from the red spot at the base of the bill that is found in the mainland Indian population. When in water it can be recognized from a long distance by the white tertials that form a stripe on the side, and in flight it is distinguished by the green speculum with a broad white band at the base. This species and the eastern spot-billed duck were formerly considered conspecific, together called the spot-billed duck.
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.
The fulvous whistling duck or fulvous tree duck is a species of whistling duck that breeds across the world's tropical regions in much of Mexico and South America, the West Indies, the southern United States, sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent. It has plumage that is mainly reddish brown, long legs and a long grey bill, and shows a distinctive white band across its black tail in flight. Like other members of its ancient lineage, it has a whistling call which is given in flight or on the ground. Its preferred habitat consists of wetlands with plentiful vegetation, including shallow lakes and paddy fields. The nest, built from plant material and unlined, is placed among dense vegetation or in a tree hole. The typical clutch is around ten whitish eggs. The breeding adults, which pair for life, take turns to incubate, and the eggs hatch in 24–29 days. The downy grey ducklings leave the nest within a day or so of hatching, but the parents continue to protect them until they fledge around nine weeks later.
The falcated duck or falcated teal is a gadwall-sized dabbling duck from the east Palearctic.
The Pacific black duck is a dabbling duck found in much of Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and many islands in the southwestern Pacific, reaching to the Caroline Islands in the north and French Polynesia in the east. It is usually called the grey duck in New Zealand, where it is also known by its Maori name, pārera.
Meller's duck is a species of the dabbling duck genus Anas. It is endemic to eastern Madagascar. Although a population was established on Mauritius in the mid-18th century, this is on the verge of extinction due to habitat loss and competition by feral domestic ducks. The species name of this species is after the botanist Charles James Meller, and its generic name is from the Latin for "duck".
The Mariana mallard or Oustalet's duck is an extinct species of duck of the genus Anas that was endemic to the Mariana Islands. Its taxonomic status is debated, and it has variously been treated as a full species, a subspecies of the mallard or of the Pacific black duck, or sometimes as a subspecies of the Indian spot-billed duck.
The Hawaiian duck or koloa is a species of bird in the family Anatidae that is endemic to the large islands of Hawaiʻi. Taxonomically, the koloa is closely allied with the mallard. It differs in that it is monochromatic and non-migratory. As with many duck species in the genus Anas, Hawaiian duck and mallards can interbreed and produce viable offspring, and the koloa has previously been considered an island subspecies of the mallard. However, all major authorities now consider this form to be a distinct species within the mallard complex. Recent analyses indicate that this is a distinct species that arose through ancient hybridization between mallard and the Laysan duck. The native Hawaiian name for this duck is koloa maoli, or simply koloa. This species is listed as endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and its population trend is decreasing.
The Mexican duck is a species of dabbling duck that breeds in Mexico and the southwestern United States.
The eastern spot-billed duck or Chinese spot-billed duck is a species of dabbling duck that breeds in East and Southeast Asia. This species was formerly considered a subspecies of the Indian spot-billed duck and both were referred to as the spot-billed duck. The name is derived from the yellow spot on the bill.
The Mallard complex refers to closely linked members of the Anas genus found around the world thought to all be descended from one common ancestor. Species in the mallard complex are known for frequent hybridization amongst other members of the complex. The species within the complex can be very difficult to distinguish genetically, likely due to either hybridization, the retention of ancestral genetic variation or both. The phenotypes of mallard complex ducks, particularly the "mallardine" species can be difficult to distinguish due to hybridization, backcrossing and the possible retention of ancestral genetic variation giving species a trait they would not usually have. The American black duck, for instance may have double white bars above and below the speculum due to either the retention of ancestral genetic material or due to gene flow from the Mallard.