Order: Anseriformes

Family: Anatidae

 

Size:  up to 55 - 63 cm

Weight: 0.79 to 1.5 kg

 

Key Features: 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 speculum and white tertials. The male has a red spot on the base of the bill, which is absent or inconspicuous in the smaller but otherwise similar female. Juveniles are browner and duller than adults.

 

Voice:   male has a nasal call, and a high-pitched whistle, while the female has a deeper quack stereotypically associated with ducks.

 

Breeding:  It nests on the ground in vegetation near water, and lays 8-14 eggs. Female duck with chicks is a common site during breeding season. It breeds from July to September.

 

Diet:  feeds by dabbling for plant food mainly in the evening or at night.

 

Habitat: Found all over India in wetlands, freshwater vegetation covered lakes and reservoirs etc. with extensive emergent vegetation.

 

Habits: This bird is sociable, often found in pairs.

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Anas poecilorhyncha. In Birding-in. Retrieved on July 05, 2014 from http://www.birding.in/birds/Anseriformes/Anatidae/spot-billed_duck.htm

 

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

 

CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), ISBN 978-0-8493-4258-5.

 

Ogilvie & Young, Wildfowl of the World. New Holland Publishers (2004), ISBN 978-1-84330-328-2

 

Photo Courtesy

sabarinathjp@gmail.com, Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Spot-Billed Duck (Anas poecilorhyncha)