Torrent duck | |
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Female (left) and male Colombian torrent duck, Cañón del Río Anaime, Colombia | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Anseriformes |
Family: | Anatidae |
Genus: | Merganetta Gould, 1842 |
Species: | M. armata |
Binomial name | |
Merganetta armata Gould, 1842 | |
Subspecies | |
M. a. colombiana(Des Murs, 1845) Contents | |
The torrent duck (Merganetta armata) is a member of the duck, goose and swan family Anatidae. It is the only member of the genus Merganetta. It is placed in the shelduck subfamily Tadorninae after the "perching duck" assemblage to which it was formerly assigned was dissolved because it turned out to be paraphyletic. [2]
This 43–46-centimetre (17–18 in) long species is a resident breeder in the Andes of South America, nesting in small waterside caves and other sheltered spots. Like the blue duck, it holds territories on fast-flowing mountain rivers, usually above 1,500 metres (4,900 ft). It is a powerful swimmer and diver even in white water but is reluctant to fly more than short distances. It is not particularly wary when located.
Male torrent ducks have a striking black and white head and neck pattern and a red bill. In-flight, they show dark wings with green speculum. Females of all subspecies are smaller than the drakes; they have orange underparts and throat, with the head and upperparts grey and a yellower bill. Juveniles are pale grey above and whitish below.
The male's call is a shrill whistle, while the female's is a throatier whistle.
This is a declining species due to competition for its invertebrate food from introduced trout, pollution, forest destruction, and damming of mountain rivers for hydroelectric schemes. The Chilean population seems relatively stable, while the more northern ones are more seriously affected. However, the overall population is still large enough to warrant classification as a Species of Least Concern in the IUCN Redlist.
The subspecies taxonomy can be confusing. Males of the southern nominate subspecies M. a. armata, the Chilean torrent duck, have grey back and blackish underparts, with a chestnut belly. Males of the slightly smaller northern subspecies, the Colombian torrent duck, M. a. colombiana, are paler underneath, with streaked grey-brown underparts. Males of a third subspecies, the Peruvian torrent duck, M. a. leucogenis, are intermediate but very variable in plumage; some have entirely black underparts (turneri morph). Only males of the Chilean torrent duck have a black 'teardrop' mark beneath the eye. The Peruvian torrent duck is sometimes split into 4 subspecies (leucogenis, turneri, garleppi and berlepschi), but these are more likely simply color variations, as they are not limited to distinct areas.
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 Tadorninae is the shelduck-sheldgoose subfamily of the Anatidae, the biological family that includes the ducks and most duck-like waterfowl such as the geese and swans.
The gadwall is a common and widespread dabbling duck in the family Anatidae.
The musk duck is a highly aquatic, stiff-tailed duck native to southern Australia. It is the only living member of the genus Biziura. An extinct relative, the New Zealand musk duck or de Lautour's duck, once occurred on New Zealand, but is only known from prehistoric subfossil bones. It was about 8% longer than the living species, with a particularly large head.
The white-faced whistling duck is a whistling duck that breeds in sub-Saharan Africa and much of South America.
The comb duck or American comb duck, is an unusual duck, found in tropical wetlands in continental South America south to the Paraguay River region in eastern Paraguay, southeastern Brazil and extreme northeastern Argentina, and as a vagrant on Trinidad.
The black-headed duck is a South American duck in subfamily Oxyurinae of family Anatidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
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 plumed whistling duck, also called the grass whistling duck, is a whistling duck that breeds in Australia. It is a predominantly brown-coloured duck with a long neck and characteristic plumes arising from its flanks. The sexes are similar in appearance.
The Brazilian teal or Brazilian duck is the only duck in the genus Amazonetta. It is widely distributed in eastern South America.
The barred antshrike is a passerine bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in the Neotropics in Mexico, every country in Central America, Trinidad and Tobago, and every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay. There is also one accepted record from southern Texas.
Hartlaub's duck is a dark chestnut-coloured duck of African forests. Formerly included in the paraphyletic "perching duck" assemblage, it was later moved to the dabbling duck assemblage. However, it is fairly distinct from the "typical" dabbling ducks, and is placed in the monotypic genus Pteronetta. It is named after the German naturalist Gustav Hartlaub.
The crested duck or South American crested duck is a species of duck native to South America, belonging to the monotypic genus Lophonetta. It is sometimes included in Anas, but it belongs to a South American clade that diverged early in dabbling duck evolution. There are two subspecies: L. specularioides alticola and L. specularioides specularioides. The Patagonian crested duck is also called the southern crested duck and its range lies in the Falklands, Chile, and Argentina.
The masked duck is a tiny stiff-tailed duck ranging through the tropical Americas.
The southern tchagra is a passerine bird found in dense scrub and coastal bush in southern and south-eastern South Africa and Eswatini.
The plaintive cuckoo is a species of bird belonging to the genus Cacomantis in the cuckoo family Cuculidae. It is native to Asia, from India, Nepal and China to Indonesia.
The Pacific pygmy owl or Peruvian pygmy owl is a small "typical owl" in subfamily Surniinae. It is found in Chile, Ecuador, and Peru.
The black-fronted bushshrike is a passerine bird of the bushshrike family, Malaconotidae. It inhabits forests mainly in East Africa. It forms a superspecies with the many-colored bushshrike and the two are sometimes considered to be a single species.
The Chilean pintail, also known as the golden peck duck or brown pintail, is a subspecies of the yellow-billed pintail, a duck in the dabbling duck subfamily Anatinae. Its local names are pato jergón grande, pato maicero and pato piquidorado in Spanish, and marreca-parda or marreca-danada in Portuguese.
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.
Data related to Torrent Duck at Wikispecies Media related to Torrent Duck at Wikimedia Commons