Freckled duck heads down bums up Other name: Monkey Duck. 48-59 cm. At distance on water, looks dark and broad-hulled; head blackish, large and peaked at rear; bill grey, markedly scooped. Male, breeding: bright wax-red base to bill. Plumage blackish brown, finely freckled pale buff to whitish; underparts paler. Female: paler; finely freckled; bill grey. Immature: lighter brown, freckled buff. Parties to cohesive flocks of hundreds on open water. Where undisturbed, camps ashore, sits on stumps, fence posts in water; feeds by filtering, upending, wading. Looks dark in flight, with a distinctive coppery sheen; paler below, with pale wing linings, less gleaming white than Black Ducks: silhouette more humped, neck depressed; head larger, neck shorter, wings sharper and smaller. Similar species: Blue-billed Duck, female: bill blunter; head rounder. Voice: soft, flute-like pipe, whee-yu, like Black Swan. Male: short raucous roar, between a sniff and a snort; female: loud discordant quack. Habitat: large, well-vegetated swamps; in dry periods moves to open lakes. Breeds: Sept.-Dec., or after suitable rainfall. Nest: well-constructed bowl; of stems and sticks; in lignum clump, overhanging tea-tree branch or flood debris, or old nest of Coot. Eggs: 5-14; creamy, glossy, oval. Shooters name Monkey Duck derives from habit of climbing through lignum to reach nest. Range and Status: breeds mostly in irregularly flooded lignum swamps in w. NSW; far sw. Q; ne. SA; also sw. WA. Disperses into coastal se. and s. Aust., nw. WA, Top End (NT) and n. Q as summer/winter visitor. Rare, irruptive, nomadic.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 10:09:19 +0000