Order: Anseriformes

Family: Anatidae

 

Size:  up to 63 - 66 cm in length.

Weight:  up to 925 – 1640 g

 

Key Features: A distinctive duck with beautiful rusty orange plumage, looks very different from almost all other waterfowl. The head is lighter than the body, with a white face and crown and often a dusky patch at the rear of the head. The neck is buffy and the stubby bill is black. The rump, tail and primary and secondary feathers are black, often with a glossy green sheen, and contrast with the white wing-coverts, which are most conspicuous when the ruddy shelduck is in flight. The legs and feet are both black, and there is a black collar on the neck, which is absent or broken on breeding birds. The female ruddy shelduck is very similar to the male, but usually smaller, with more white on the face, no collar and a buff wash on the upper-wing coverts. The juvenile is similar to the female but duller and with a browner back.

 

Voice:  trumpeting and honking “choor” and “aakh” calls.

 

Breeding: Courtship is brief, with the male and female engaging in head-bowing and head-jerking. The nest is a cavity created in a sand or clay bank, into which eight or nine eggs are usually laid. The male ruddy shelduck defends the nest while the female incubates the eggs for 28 or 29 days, but both adults tend to the chicks. The young birds fledge from the nest after approximately 55 days and the adults then undergo a flightless period of around 4 weeks.

 

Diet:   omnivorous diet consisting of a variety of aquatic and terrestrial vegetation, insects, fish, frogs and worms. It plucks or grazes on vegetation while on land, and dabbles while swimming, often upending to feed on aquatic plants and other food items.

 

Habitat: found around freshwater, salty and brackish lakes and rivers in open country, avoiding areas with dense, tall vegetation. 

 

Habits: The ruddy shelduck swims with a characteristic posture, the head being held erect, but the front part of the body riding very low in the water and the rear part held high.

 

Conservation Status: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

 

 

 

 

References:

del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. and Sargatal, J. (1992) Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

 

BirdGuides – Ruddy shelduck (July, 2014) http://www.birdguides.com/species/species.asp?sp=027042

 

World Association of Zoos and Aquariums – Ruddy shelduck (July, 2014) http://www.waza.org/en/zoo/visit-the-zoo/ducks-geese-pelikanes-and-relatives/tadorna-ferruginea

 

Ogilvie, M.A. and Young, S. (2002) Photographic Handbook: Wildfowl of the World. New Holland Publishers, London.

 

Kear, J. (2005) Ducks, Geese and Swans. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

 

BirdLife International (2014) Species factsheet: Tadorna ferruginea. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 05th July, 2014.

 

Photo Courtesy

Arpingstone, Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons