| Brazilian teal | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Anseriformes |
| Family: | Anatidae |
| Subfamily: | Anatinae |
| Genus: | Amazonetta von Boetticher, 1929 |
| Species: | A. brasiliensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Amazonetta brasiliensis (Gmelin, JF, 1789) | |
| Subspecies | |
See text | |
 | |
The Brazilian teal or Brazilian duck (Amazonetta brasiliensis) is the only duck in the genus Amazonetta. It is widely distributed in eastern South America.
The Brazilian teal was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae . He placed it with all the other ducks, swans and geese in the genus Anas and coined the binomial name Anas brasiliensis. [2] Gmelin based his description on the Mareca alia species (the second Mareca) that was described in 1648 by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. [3] [4] The Brazilian teal is now the only species placed in the genus Amazonetta that was introduced by the German zoologist Hans von Boetticher in 1929. [5] [6]
It was formerly considered a perching duck , but more recent analyses indicate that it belongs to a clade of South American dabbling ducks which also includes the crested duck, the bronze-winged duck, and possibly the steamer ducks. [7]
Two subspecies are recognised: [6]
The ducks are light brown in colour. Drakes distinguish themselves from females in having red beaks and legs, and in having a distinctive pale grey area on the side of its head and neck. The colour of these limbs is much duller in females.
They can be found throughout eastern South America, from central Brazil, to Uruguay, to northern and eastern Argentina, Paraguay, central Venezuela, northeastern Peru, Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana, eastern Bolivia, and eastern Colombia. [1] [8] Their preferred habitat is a body of freshwater away from the coast with dense vegetation nearby.
Brazilian teal live in pairs or in small groups of up to twenty birds. Both parents look after their hatchlings. They eat seeds, fruits, roots and insect, while ducklings eat only insects.
They are plentiful and are listed as of Least Concern. [1]
Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae, Anseranatidae, and Anatidae, the largest family, which includes over 170 species of waterfowl, among them the ducks, geese, and swans. Most modern species in the order are highly adapted for an aquatic existence at the water surface. With the exception of screamers, males have penises, a trait that has been lost in the Neoaves. Due to their aquatic nature, most species are web-footed.
The Anatinae are a subfamily of the family Anatidae. Its surviving members are the dabbling ducks, which feed mainly at the surface rather than by diving. The other members of the Anatinae are the extinct moa-nalo, a young but highly apomorphic lineage derived from the dabbling ducks.
The gadwall is a common and widespread dabbling duck in the family Anatidae.
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 green-winged 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 has since been split into its own 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 Cape teal also Cape wigeon or Cape widgeon is a 44–46 cm long dabbling duck of open wetlands in sub-Saharan Africa.
Anas is a genus of dabbling ducks. It includes the pintails, most teals, and the mallard and its close relatives. It formerly included additional species but following the publication of a molecular phylogenetic study in 2009 the genus was split into four separate genera. The genus now contains 31 living species. The name Anas is the Latin for "duck".
The Pacific black duck, commonly known as the PBD, 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 gray duck in New Zealand, where it is also known by its Maori name, pārera.
The horned screamer is a member of a small family of birds, the Anhimidae, which occurs in wetlands of tropical South America. There are three screamer species, the other two being the southern screamer and the northern screamer in the genus Chauna. They are related to the ducks, geese and swans, which are in the family Anatidae, but have bills looking more like those of game birds.
The red-billed teal or red-billed duck is a dabbling duck which is an abundant resident breeder in southern and eastern Africa typically south of 10° S. This duck is not migratory, but will fly great distances to find suitable waters. It is highly gregarious outside the breeding season and forms large flocks.
The yellow-billed pintail is a South American dabbling duck of the genus Anas with three described subspecies.
The great tinamou is a species of tinamou ground bird native to Central and South America. There are several subspecies, mostly differentiated by their coloration.
The anis are the three species of birds in the genus Crotophaga of the cuckoo family. They are essentially tropical New World birds, although the range of two species just reaches the United States.
The smooth-billed ani is a bird in the cuckoo family. It is a resident breeding species from southern Florida, the Caribbean, parts of Central America, south to western Ecuador, Brazil, northern Argentina and southern Chile. It was introduced to Galápagos around the 1960s and is potentially impacting native and endemic species across the archipelago.
The guira cuckoo is a gregarious bird found widely in open and semi-open habitats of northeastern, eastern and southern Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and northeastern Argentina. It is the only species placed in the genus Guira.
The São Tomé green pigeon is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemic to the island of São Tomé in São Tomé and Príncipe. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. The species was described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1789. They have disappeared from Ilhéu das Rolas due to habitat loss. There are around 10,000 pigeons of this species today.
The guira tanager is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae.
The sayaca tanager is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers. It is a common resident in northeastern, central, and southeastern Brazil, and Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and northeastern Argentina. A few are recorded from far southeastern Peru, but its status there is unclear, in part due to the potential of confusion with the very similar juveniles of the blue-grey tanager.
The black-necked araçari, is a species of bird in the toucan family. It is found in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.
