The literature of waterfowl overflows -- not only are ornithologists and birdwatchers interested, ducks are actively hunted throughout the world for food and sport. Indeed, there may be no set of birds that is more popular.
I often think of ducks as boring, but when I began putting together this
page I realized just what a variety there was from which to choose and
how attractive some of them are. Although common in California, a male
Ring-necked
Duck (left) is a very dapper bird. Likewise, the annual flight south
of our northern migrants is truly spectacular. A sky full of Tundra
Swans (below right) or geese can be a spiritual experience. In winter,
California's Central Valley is full of such flocks. There are ducks throughout
mid-latitudes around the world, with swans & geese at upper latitudes
both north and south. There are many fewer waterfowl in the tropics; many
of them are scarce & local.
Waterfowl as a family is a noncontroversial concept, but there has been a lot of debate about the arrangement of the subfamilies and tribes within the family, and about the relationship of the Anatidae to other families. In many ducks there is strong sexual dimorphism, with males sporting conspicuous and classic patterns most of the year (except for a brief "eclipse" plumage during wing-molt) and females often dressed in camouflage patterns. In many species males are promiscuous and do not share any of the duties of raising young. "Rape" is a common behavior in many of the "puddle ducks" (like Mallard Anas platyrhychos). Two of the prettiest male ducks are the Wood Duck (below left) and the Barrow's Goldeneye (below right).
The literature of waterfowl overflows -- not only are ornithologists
and birdwatchers interested, ducks are actively hunted throughout the world
for food and sport. Indeed, there may be no set of birds that is more popular.
I think, though, of all the waterfowl the ones that most impress me are
the cascade specialists -- those ducks that spent their lives in and by
rushing streams in the Andes or Australasian mountains. Incredible swimmers
with elongated bodies and long maneuverable tails, somehow they are at
home in the swiftest of currents. I've been fortunate to observe all of
them in habitat. The Torrent Duck (left) is silhouetted against
the turbulent Urubamba River in the Peruvian Andes; a close-up of the same
shot (lightened in PhotoShop) proves it to be a white-headed male. The
other cascade specialists are the Blue Duck Hymenolaimus malacorhynchus
of New Zealand and Salvadori's Teal Salvadorina waigiuensis of New
Guinea.
Because many species of waterfowl are long distance migrants, there is the possibility for vagrants. A good selection has reached California, including a single Common Pochard -- a male that returned for 3 successive winters to a lake in the Mojave desert (below upper; Pochard to the right with a male & female Redhead to its left) -- and occasionally a stray Emperor Goose (below bottom, foraging on a mudflat).
Photos: The male Ring-necked Duck
Aythya
collaris (top left) was photographed at Arcadia, Los Angeles Co., California
in Dec 1983; they can become very tame winter visitors to urban parks.
The two Tundra Swans Cygnus columbianus
were overhead at Honey Lake, Lassen Co., California, in Feb 1981. The male
Wood
Duck Aix sponsa was at a city park in Santa Cruz, California,
in Jan 1984, and the male
Barrow's Goldeneye
Buchephala
islandica was on Lake Merritt in Oakland, California (a great spot
to see this species each winter) in Jan 1987. The Torrent
Duck
Merganetta armata was seen from the train down the Urumbamba
River to Machupicchu, Peru, in July 1987. California's first and only Common
Pochard Aythya ferina wintered with Redhead
A.
americana at Silverwood Lake, San Bernardino Co., California; my photo
is from 16 Feb 1989. The vagrant Emperor Goose
Anser
canagica spent a few weeks on Bay Farm I., Alameda Co., California,
in Dec 1987. All photos © D. Roberson.
Bibliographic essay
Family Book: III rating (out
of 5 possible)
Madge, Steve & Hilary Burn. 1988. Waterfowl: An identification
guide to the Ducks, Geese and Swans of the World. Houghton Mifflin,
Boston.
This was one of the first "compact" family books which would set a pattern to be followed by all too many of those that followed: sets of color paintings together in the front with facing pages of brief text & map, and then detailed species accounts forming the back half of the book. The plates here are fairly nice and not so rigidly "field-guide art" and some later examples, but still one gets little sense of the habitat of each species in the artwork. The text is aimed primarily at identification topics with sections on habitat, distribution, and movements. This book -- indeed, this type of book -- is okay for an introduction to the topics covered, but it is too small to be thorough. I will still turn to the Birds of Western Palearctic series, or the relevant volumes of the unfinished Palmer's Handbook of North American Birds, for detailed plumage descriptions and molt schedules. Detailed and well-illustrated identification articles (hopefully with photos) are still required to identify vagrants. It is thus quite difficult to decide exactly what the Madge & Burn book is good for, except for a quick & comparatively accurate summary of the world's waterfowl.Family Book: II rating (out of 5 possible)
A different sort of book than Madge & Burn, this is meant to be a "coffee table" book of lovely photos and an introduction to the variety in the family. It serves these purposes well. The photos are very nice and an effort has been made to cover every species (even a few specimens when that was all there was). There is an especially useful appendix for birders which summarizes the status of each species in captivity in North America. This helps immensely in getting a feel of whether the wayward duck you've just discovered could be a wild vagrant or is just an escape from a captive collection.Other literature cited or recommended:
Bailey, S. F. 1991. Bill characters separating Trumpeter and Tundra swans: a cautionary note. Birding 23: 89-91.TOPBanko, W. E. 1980. The Trumpeter Swan. Univ. of Nebraska Press, Lincoln. [A thorough study of biology and distribution, plus excellent discussions of vocalizations. Does not focus on fine points of visual identification -- see Bailey 1991, Tobish 1991, and Patten & Heindel 1994 for that material -- but should be reviewed by any interested in Trumpeter Swan i.d. and distribution.]
Cramp, S. & K.E.L. Simmons, eds. 1977. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Vol. 1. Oxford Univ. Press.
Fraker, R., and K. Karlson. 1997. A closer look: Spectacled Eider. Birding 29: 491-495.
Gillham, E. H. 1987. Tufted Ducks in a Royal Park. E. Gillham, Romney Marsh, Kent, England. [An absolutely great bird on plumage variation, hybridization, molt schedules, and biology of Tufted Duck. Because it was published privately, it has been overlooked much too often.]
Gillham, E. H., Harrison, J. M., and Harrison, J. G. 1966. A study of certain Aythya hybrids. Wildfowl Trust Annual Report 17: 49-65. [The absolutely classic work on this topic.]
Jackson, G. D. 1991. Field identification of teal in North America, female-like plumages. Part I: Blue-winged, Cinnamon, and Green-winged Teal. Birding 24: 214-223.
Jackson, G. D. 1992. Field identification of teal in North America, female-like plumages. Part II: Garganey and Baikal Teal. Birding 24: 214-223.
Kent, T. H. 1987. Eiders in Iowa. Iowa Bird Life 57: 88-93. [King Eider i.d.]
Lockwood, M. W. 1997. A closer look: Masked Duck. Birding 29: 386-390.
Martin, P. R., and B. M. DiLabio. 1994. Identification of Common X Barrow's Goldeneye hybrids in the field. Birding 26: 104-105.
Palmer, R.S., ed. 1976. Handbook of North American Birds. Vols. 2 & 3. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, CT.
Patten, M. A., and M. T. Heindel. 1994. Identifying Trumpeter and Tundra Swans. Birding 26: 306-318. [A good starting point on the topic but overly cautious at times, and best used in connection with Banko, above.]
Roberson, D. 1993b. A note on hybrid white geese: a cautionary tale. Birding 30:50-53.
Shields, G. F., and A. C. Wilson. 1987. Subspecies of Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) have distinct mitochondrial DNAs. Evolution 41:662-666.
Tobish, T. 1986. Separation of Barrow's and Common goldeneyes in all plumages. Birding 18: 17-27.
Tobish, T. 1991. Notes on immature swans in spring. Birding 23: 88-89.
Trauger, D. L., A. Dzubin, and J. P. Ryder. 1971. White geese intermediate between Ross' Geese and Lesser Snow Geese. Auk 88:856-875.
Van Wagner, C. E., and A. J. Baker. 1990. Association between mitochondrial DNA and morphological evolution in Canada Geese. J. Molec. Evol. 31:373-382.
Wallace, D. I. M., and M. A. Ogilvie. 1985. Distinguishing Blue-winged and Cinnamon teals, in Sharrock, J. T. R., ed. The Frontiers of Bird Identification, pp. 267-271. British Birds, Ltd., Biggleswade, U.K.
