Eastern spot-billed duck

The eastern spot-billed duck or Chinese spot-billed duck (Anas zonorhyncha) 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 (A. poecilorhyncha). The name is derived from the yellow spot on the bill.

Eastern spot-billed duck
Swimming in Japan

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Anseriformes
Family: Anatidae
Genus: Anas
Species:
A. zonorhyncha
Binomial name
Anas zonorhyncha

Taxonomy
Showing blue speculum

The eastern spot-billed duck was described by the English biologist Robert Swinhoe in 1866 under its current binomial name Anas zonorhyncha.[2][3] The name of the genus Anas is the Latin word for a duck. The specific epithet zonorhyncha is derived from the classical Greek words zōnē meaning "band" or "girdle" and rhunkhos meaning "bill".[4]

Historically, the eastern spot-billed duck was usually considered as a subspecies of the Indian spot-billed duck (A. poecilorhyncha). The American ornithologist Bradley Livezey in a morphological study of the dabbling ducks published in 1991 proposed that the eastern spot-billed duck should be promoted to species status.[5] Subsequently, fieldwork conducted at Hong Kong in southern China found that although both the eastern spot-billed duck and the Indian spot-billed duck (subspecies A. poecilorhyncha haringtoni) bred in the region at the same time, mixed pairs were only very rarely observed.[6] Base on this observation, the American Ornithologists' Union recognised the eastern spot-billed duck as a separate species in 2008.[7] Most taxonomists now treat the eastern spot-billed duck as a separate species.[8][9][10] There is also some degree of hybridization with the mallard in the wild in eastern Russia with a tendency for a greater ratio of male eastern spot-billed ducks to mate with female mallards than the other way round.[11]

Description
Taking off

This duck is around the same size as a mallard and has a scaly patterned body with a blue speculum. At rest the long neck and the bill with the yellow tip are distinctive. It measures 55–63 cm (22–25 in) in length and 83–95 cm (33–37 in) across the wings, with a body mass of 790–1,500 g (1.74–3.31 lb).[12][13] These are mainly grey ducks with a paler head and neck and a black bill tipped bright yellow. The wings are whitish with black flight feathers below, and from above show a white-bordered green. The male does not have an eclipse plumage. Juveniles are browner and duller than adults. The legs and feet are bright orange.[14]

The eastern spot-billed duck is darker and browner than the Indian spot-billed duck; its body plumage is more similar to the Pacific black duck. It lacks the red bill spot, and has a blue speculum.[14][15]

Both males and females undergo a complete postnuptial moult, dropping all their wing feathers simultaneously.[14]

Distribution

The eastern spot-billed duck is migratory, wintering in Southeast Asia. It is quite gregarious outside the breeding season and forms small flocks. The populations in Japan and the Russian Far East have expanded their range northwards by more than 500 km since the early 20th century, possibly in reaction to global warming.[11]

It is a bird of freshwater lakes and marshes in fairly open country and feeds by dabbling for plant food mainly in the evening or at night. The breeding season varies with rainfall and water condition but normally between April and July.[8] It nests on the ground in vegetation near water. The clutch is usually 7-9 eggs.[8] Incubation begins after the last egg is laid (allowing the chicks to hatch simultaneously) and the young hatch after about 24 days. The chicks are black with a yellow back and resemble those of mallards but with a wider eyestripe.[14]

Both the male and female have calls similar to the mallard.

  • Male (front) and female
  • Adult with ducklings
gollark: Consider NOT using Instagram or TikTok.
gollark: Utterly differentiate yourself with respect to time, then.
gollark: No.
gollark: No, that's also bad.
gollark: You could try doing other things instead.

References
  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Anas zonorhyncha". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22736042A95123703. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22736042A95123703.en.
  2. Swinhoe, Robert (1866). "Ornithological notes from Formosa". Ibis. series 2. 2: 392–406 [394]. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.1866.tb08612.x.
  3. Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1979). Check-list of Birds of the World. Volume 1 (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 471.
  4. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 46, 411. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  5. Livezey, B.C. (1991). "A phylogenetic analysis and classification of recent dabbling ducks (Tribe Anatini) based on comparative morphology" (PDF). The Auk. 108 (3): 471–507. doi:10.2307/4088089. JSTOR 4088089.
  6. Leader, P.J. (2006). "Sympatric breeding of two Spot-billed Duck Anas poecilorhyncha taxa in southern China". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 126 (4): 248–252.
  7. Banks, Richard C.; et al. (2008). "Fifty-Ninth Supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-List of North American Birds". The Auk. 125 (3): 758–768. doi:10.1525/auk.2008.9708.
  8. del Hoyo, P.F.; Collar, N.; Kirwan, G.M. (2017). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). "Chinese Spot-billed Duck (Anas zonorhyncha)". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  9. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2017). "Screamers, ducks, geese & swans". World Bird List Version 7.3. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  10. Lepage, Denis. "Eastern Spot-billed Duck, Anas zonorhyncha Swinhoe, 1866". Avibase. Bird Studies Canada. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  11. Kulikova, Irina V.; Zhuravlev, Yury N.; McCracken, Kevin G. (2004). "Asymmetric hybridization and sex-biased gene flow between eastern Spot-billed Ducks (Anas zonorhyncha) and Mallards (A. platyrhynchos) in the Russian Far East". The Auk. 121 (3): 930. doi:10.1642/0004-8038(2004)121[0930:AHASGF]2.0.CO;2.
  12. CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), ISBN 978-0-8493-4258-5.
  13. Ogilvie & Young, Wildfowl of the World. New Holland Publishers (2004), ISBN 978-1-84330-328-2
  14. Ali, Salim & S. Dillon Ripley (1978). Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan. 1 (2nd ed.). New Delhi: Oxford University Press. pp. 157–160.
  15. Baker, E.C.S. (1913). "A note on the sub-species of the Spot-bill Duck Anas poecilorhyncha". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 22 (4): 805–807.
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