| Yellow-billed pintail | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Anseriformes |
| Family: | Anatidae |
| Genus: | Anas |
| Species: | A. georgica |
| Binomial name | |
| Anas georgica Gmelin, 1789 | |
| Subspecies | |
See text | |
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| Synonyms | |
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The yellow-billed pintail (Anas georgica) is a South American dabbling duck of the genus Anas with three described subspecies.
The yellow-billed pintail 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 ducks, geese, and swans in the genus Anas and coined the binomial name Anas georgica. [2] Gmelin based his description on the "Georgia duck" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. [3] [4] The naturalist Joseph Banks had provided Latham with a water-colour drawing of the duck by Georg Forster who had accompanied James Cook on his second voyage to the Pacific Ocean. The watercolour was painted in 1775 in South Georgia. This picture is now the holotype for the species and is held by the Natural History Museum in London. [5] The genus name Anas is the Latin word for a duck. [6]
Three subspecies are recognised: [7]
The yellow-billed pintail has a brown head and neck. The bill is yellow with a black tip and a black stripe down the middle. [8] The tail is brownish and pointed. The upper wing is grayish-brown, and the secondaries are blackish-green. The rest of the body is buffish brown with varying-sized black spots. The species is sometimes confused with yellow-billed teal (Anas flavirostris) but can be differentiated by the yellow stripes on its bill, its larger size, and its tendency not to form large groups. [9] The nominate subspecies is smaller and darker than Anas g. spinicauda. The yellow-billed pintail forms a superspecies with the northern pintail (Anas acuta). [10]
The range includes much of South America, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia. The nominate and smallest subspecies, the South Georgia pintail A. g. georgica, is thought to number between 1000 and 1500 pairs and is found only in South Georgia. The Chilean, or brown, pintail A. g. spinicauda is widespread on the South American mainland from extreme southern Colombia southwards, as well as in the Falkland Islands, and numbers well over 110,000. Niceforo's pintail A. g. niceforoi, formerly found in central Colombia, is believed to be extinct, having been last recorded in 1952 (and described only in 1946). Their habitat ranges from high-elevation lakes and marshes to low-elevation lakes and rivers and coasts in open country. [11]
The nest is placed on the ground in vegetation close to water. It is lined with grass and down. The clutch is 4 to 10 eggs which hatch after incubation for around 26 days. The chicks have dark brown down above and yellow down below. [10]
In high-altitude populations of yellow-billed pintail, hemoglobin has a higher affinity for oxygen than in lower-altitude populations, which can be attributable to substitutions in their beta-globin gene. These substitutions are shared by speckled teal because of introgressive hybridization between the two species. [12] Gene flow between populations also suggests that yellow-billed pintails that are heterozygous for the βA hemoglobin subunit may be able to acclimate to high altitudes more efficiently than those that are homozygous for the βA hemoglobin subunit. [13]
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.
Pintail may refer to:
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 Eurasian teal, common teal, or Eurasian green-winged teal is a common and widespread duck that breeds in temperate Eurosiberia and migrates south in winter. The Eurasian teal is often called simply the teal due to being the only one of these small dabbling ducks in much of its range. The bird gives its name to the blue-green colour teal.
The Cape teal also Cape wigeon or Cape widgeon is a 44–46 cm long dabbling duck of open wetlands in sub-Saharan Africa.
The ruddy duck is a duck from North America and one of the stiff-tailed ducks. The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek oxus, "sharp", and oura, "tail", and jamaicensis is "from Jamaica".
The white-cheeked pintail, also known as the Bahama pintail or summer duck, is a species of dabbling duck. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under its current scientific name.
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.
The upland goose or Magellan goose is a sheldgoose of 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. Sheldgeese resemble true geese and display similar habits, yet they are more closely related to shelducks and ducks. The two recognized subspecies of upland goose are the continental picta subspecies and the insular (island) leucoptera subspecies.
The Brazilian teal or Brazilian duck is the only duck in the genus Amazonetta. It is widely distributed in eastern South America.
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 teal is a South American species of duck. Like other teals, it belongs to the diverse genus Anas; more precisely it is one of the "true" teals of subgenus Nettion. It occurs in Argentina, the Falkland Islands, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Brazil. It has also established itself in South Georgia, where it was first recorded breeding in 1971, and has been recorded as far east as Tristan da Cunha. It inhabits freshwater wetlands, preferring palustrine habitat to rivers. Considering its wide range and local abundance, it is not considered threatened by the IUCN.
The silver teal or versicolor teal is a species of dabbling duck in the genus Spatula. It breeds in South America.
The New Zealand scaup, also known as the black teal or pāpango in Māori, is a diving duck species of the genus Aythya endemic to New Zealand. They weigh around 650 grams (23 oz) and measure around 40 centimetres (16 in), and have dark-coloured plumage. They are found throughout New Zealand in deep natural and man-made lakes and ponds.
The South Georgia pintail, also misleadingly known as the South Georgian teal, is the nominate subspecies of the yellow-billed pintail, a duck in the dabbling duck subfamily Anatinae. It is endemic to the large (3,756 km2) subantarctic island of South Georgia and its accompanying archipelago, and is a vagrant to the South Sandwich Islands. It was among the birds noted by James Cook in January 1775, on the occasion of the first recorded landing on South Georgia, and was formerly considered a full species.
The Andean teal is a South American species of duck. Like other teals, it belongs to the diverse genus Anas; more precisely it is one of the "true" teals of subgenus Nettion. It is restricted to the Andean highlands of Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. It inhabits freshwater wetlands, preferring palustrine habitat to rivers. It is not considered threatened by the IUCN.
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.
Niceforo's pintail is an extinct subspecies of the yellow-billed pintail, a duck in the dabbling duck subfamily Anatinae. One of three subspecies, it was found in central Colombia but became extinct in the 1950s, being last seen in 1952.
Teal is a blue-green color .
