The North American Perching and Dabbling Ducks: Their Biology and Behavior

230 Pages·2017·46.546 MB·English

by  Paul A. Johnsgard

The North American
Perching and Dabbling Ducks
Paul A. Johnsgard
This volume is the fourth in a series of books that collectively update and expand P. A. Johnsgard’s 1975 The Waterfowl of
North America. It includes two representative species of the mostly tropical perching duck tribe Cairinini: the muscovy duck
and the wood duck. Both species forage on the water surface, mostly on plant materials, but perch in trees and nest in ele-
vated tree cavities. This volume also includes the dabbling, or surface-feeding, duck tribe Anatini, species that mainly forage
on the water surface but nest on the ground. The 12 species of this tribe that regularly breed in North America include the
familiar mallards, wigeons, pintails, and teal. Descriptive accounts of the distributions, populations, ecologies, social-sexual
behaviors, and breeding biology of all these species are provided, together with distribution maps. Five additional Eurasian
and West Indian species that have been reported in North America have also been included with more abbreviated accounts.
All 19 species are illustrated by drawings or photographs or both. The updated bibliography contains more than 1,000 refer-
ences. There are 12 distribution maps, 31 drawings, 28 photographs, and 58 anatomical or behavioral sketches.
Zea Books ISBN 978-1-60962-109-4
Lincoln, Nebraska doi:10.13014/K27H1GGV
the north american perching and dabbling ducks

The North American
Perching and
Dabbling Ducks
Their Biology and Behavior
Paul A. Johnsgard
School of Biological Sciences
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Zea Books, Lincoln, Nebraska: 2017
Abstract
This volume, the fourth in a series of books that collectively update and expand P. A. Johnsgard’s
1975 The Waterfowl of North America, summarizes research findings on this economically and
ecologically important group of waterfowl. The volume includes the mostly tropical perching
duck tribe Cairinini, of which two species, the muscovy duck and the wood duck, are repre-
sentatives. Both species are adapted for foraging on the water surface, mostly on plant materi-
als, but typically perch in trees and nest in elevated tree cavities or other elevated recesses. This
volume also includes the dabbling, or surface-feeding, duck tribe Anatini, a large assemblage
of duck species that mainly forage on the water surface but nest on the ground, or only very
rarely in elevated locations. Of this tribe, 12 species that regularly breed in North America are
included, among them such familiar species as mallards, wigeons, pintails, and teal. Descrip-
tive accounts of the distributions, populations, ecologies, social-sexual behaviors, and breeding
biology of all these species are provided, together with distribution maps. Five additional Eur-
asian and West Indian species have been reported several times in North America; these have
been included with more abbreviated accounts, but all 17 species are illustrated by drawings,
photographs, or both. The text includes about 84,000 words and contains more than 1,000
references. There are also 12 distribution maps, 21 drawings, 28 photographic plates, and 58
anatomical or behavioral sketches.
Spot illustrations — page 1: Male and female wood duck; page 2: Northern pintails; page 10:
Northern shoveler, male; page 12: Northern mallard, female and brood; page 22: Blue-winged teal,
male in flight; page 23: Blue-winged teal, male swimming; page 120: Northern mallard, pair landing;
page 187: North American green-winged teal, three-bird flight; page 227: Wood duck, male.
Text, photographs, and illustrations copyright © 2017 Paul A. Johnsgard
ISBN 978-1-60962-109-4
https://doi.org/10.13014/K27H1GGV
Composed in Adobe Garamond and Imprint MT Shadow types.
Zea Books are published by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries
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Contents
List of Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
List of Photographs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
I. Introduction to the Perching and Dabbling Ducks . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
II. Species Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Tribe Cairinini (Perching Ducks) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Muscovy Duck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Wood Duck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Tribe Anatini (Dabbling or Surface-feeding Ducks) . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Eurasian Wigeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
American Wigeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Falcated Duck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Gadwall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Baikal Teal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Green-winged Teal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Northern Mallard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Southern Mallards: Mexican, Florida, and Mottled Ducks . . . . . . . . 108
American Black Duck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
White-cheeked Pintail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Northern Pintail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Garganey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Blue-winged Teal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Cinnamon Teal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Northern Shoveler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
III. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
General References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
The Birds of North America Monographs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
General Anatidae, Taxonomy, and National Surveys. . . . . . . . . . 188
State and Regional Bird Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Multiple Taxa Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
5
6 Contents
Single- and Dual-Species Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Muscovy Duck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Wood Duck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Wood Ducks and Brood Parasitism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Eurasian Wigeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
American Wigeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Falcated Duck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Gadwall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Baikal Teal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Green-winged Teal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Northern Mallard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Mexican, Florida, and Mottled Ducks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
American Black Duck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Mallard–Black Duck Interactions and Genetics . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Other Mallard Hybrids and Anas Genetics. . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
White-cheeked Pintail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Northern Pintail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Garganey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Blue-winged Teal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Cinnamon Teal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Northern Shoveler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Maps
Muscovy duck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Wood duck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
American wigeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Gadwall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Green-winged teal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Northern mallard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Southern mallards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
American black duck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Northern pintail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Blue-winged teal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Cinnamon teal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Northern shoveler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Contents 7
Figures
1. External topography of a perching duck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2. Head profiles of male North American perching and dabbling ducks . . . . . . 19
3. Head profiles of female North American perching and dabbling ducks. . . . . . 20
4. Male and female muscovy ducks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5. Male and female wood ducks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6. Sexual behavior of wood duck and gadwall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7. Male Eurasian wigeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
8. Male American wigeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
9. Male American wigeon landing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
10. Male falcated duck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
11. Male gadwall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
12. Sexual behavior of gadwall and green-winged teal . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
13. Courting flight, gadwall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
14. Male Baikal teal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
15. Male and female North American green-winged teal . . . . . . . . . . . 85
16. Male Eurasian green-winged teal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
17. Male northern mallard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
18. Sexual behavior of green-winged teal, northern mallard, and Florida duck. . . . . 105
19. Male Florida duck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
20. Male American black duck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
21. Male American black duck, in flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
22. Male white-cheeked pintail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
23. Male northern pintail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
24. Sexual behavior of northern pintail and northern shoveler . . . . . . . . . 148
25. Male garganey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
26. Make blue-winged teal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
27. Male cinnamon teal, preening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
28. Male cinnamon teal, in flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
29. Male northern shoveler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
8 Contents
Photographs
Muscovy duck, adult male . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Muscovy ducks, adult pair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Wood duck, adult male . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Wood duck pair courting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Eurasian wigeon, adult male. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
American wigeon, adult male, wing-flapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
American wigeon, adult male . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Falcated duck, adult male . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Gadwall, adult pair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Baikal teal, adult males . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
American green-winged teal, adult male . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Eurasian green-winged teal, adult males . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Northern mallard, adult pair swimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Northern mallard, adult pair resting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Mexican mallard, adult male . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Florida duck, adult pair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
American black duck, adult pair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
American black ducks, female and brood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
White-cheeked pintail pair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Northern pintail, adult pair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Northern pintail, alert adult male . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Garganey, adult male . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Blue-winged teal, adult pair swimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Blue-winged teal, adult pair feeding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Cinnamon teal and blue-winged teal, adult males . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Cinnamon teal, courting group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Northern shoveler, adult pair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Northern shoveler, adult male . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185