Pacific black duck: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Species of bird}}
{{Speciesbox
| nameimage = Pacific black duck (Anas superciliosa) male swimming Sydney.jpg
| image_caption = Male at Centennial Park, Sydney
| image = PBD (1).jpg
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
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| genus = Anas
| species = superciliosa
| authority = [[Johann Friedrich Gmelin|Gmelin, JF]], 1789
| range_map = PBD range.svg
| range_map_caption = Natural range of the Pacific black duck
| subdivision_ranks = Subspecies
| subdivision = See text
}}
 
The '''Pacific black duck''' ('''''Anas superciliosa''), commonly known as the '''PBD''',) is a [[dabbling duck]] found in much of [[Indonesia]], [[New Guinea]], [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]], and many islands in the southwestern Pacific, reaching to the [[Caroline Islands]] in the north and [[French Polynesia]] in the east. It is usually called the '''grey duck''' in New Zealand, where it is also known by its Maori name, {{lang|mi|pārera}}.{{short description|Species of bird}}
 
==Taxonomy==
[[File:Forster Anas superciliosa.jpg|thumb|Watercolour made by [[Georg Forster]] on [[James Cook]]'s [[Second voyage of James Cook|second voyage to the Pacific Ocean]]. This painting is the [[holotype]] for the species.]]
The Pacific black duck was [[Species description|formally described]] in 1789 by the German naturalist [[Johann Friedrich Gmelin]] in his revised and expanded edition of [[Carl Linnaeus]]'s ''[[Systema Naturae]]''. He placed it with all the other ducks, geese and swans in the [[genus]] ''[[Anas]]'' and coined the [[binomial nomenclature|binomial name]] ''Anas superciliosa''.<ref>{{ cite book | last=Gmelin | first=Johann Friedrich | author-link=Johann Friedrich Gmelin| year=1789 | title=Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | edition=13th | volume=1, Part 2 | language=Latin | location=Lipsiae [Leipzig] | publisher=Georg. Emanuel. Beer | page=537 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2656030 }}</ref> Gmelin based his description on the "Supercilious duck" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist [[John Latham (ornithologist)|John Latham]] in his ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. The naturalist [[Joseph Banks]] had provided Latham with a drawing of the duck from New Zealand.<ref>{{ cite book | last=Latham | first=John | author-link=John Latham (ornithologist) | year=1785 | title=A General Synopsis of Birds | volume=3, Part 2 | publisher=Printed for Leigh and Sotheby | location=London | page=497, No. 45 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40079318 }}</ref><ref>{{ cite book | editor1-last=Mayr | editor1-first=Ernst | editor1-link=Ernst Mayr | editor2-last=Cottrell | editor2-first=G. William | year=1979 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=1 | edition=2nd | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=472 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16109112 }}</ref> The naturalist [[Joseph Banks]] had provided Latham with a water-colour drawing of the duck by [[Georg Forster]] who had accompanied [[James Cook]] on his [[Second voyage of James Cook|second voyage to the Pacific Ocean]]. His picture was drawn at [[Dusky Sound]], a fiord on the southwest corner of New Zealand. This picture is the [[holotype]] for the species and is now held by the [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]] in London.<ref>{{ cite journal | last=Medway | first=David G. | date=1976 | title=Extant types of New Zealand birds from Cook's voyages. Part 1: Historical and type paintings | journal=Notornis | volume=23 | issue=1 | pages=45-60 [54, "Grey duck"] | url=https://www.birdsnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Notornis_23_1.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{ cite journal | last=Lysaght | first=Averil | date=1959 | title=Some eighteenth century bird paintings in the library of Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) | journal=Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Historical Series | volume=1 | issue=6 | pages=251-371 [290, No. 77] | doi=10.5962/p.92313 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2238991 | doi-access=free }}</ref> The genus name ''Anas'' is the Latin word for a duck. The specific epithet ''superciliosa'' is from Latin meaning "supercilious" or "eye-browed", a reference to the prominent [[supercilium]] or eye-stripe.<ref>{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 | pages=[https://archive.org/stream/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling#page/n46/mode/1up 46], [https://archive.org/stream/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling#page/n374/mode/1up 374]}}</ref>
 
Two [[subspecies]] are now recognised:<ref name=ioc>{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen | date=January 2022 | title=Screamers, ducks, geese & swans | work=IOC World Bird List Version 12.1 | url=http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/waterfowl/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=4 July 2022 }}</ref>
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Like its relatives the [[mallard]] and [[American black duck]], the Pacific black duck is one of a number of duck species that can quack, with the female producing a sequence of raucous, rapid quacking which decreases in volume.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/species/8243|title=Anas superciliosa, Pacific Black Duck|website=Museums Victoria Collections|access-date=2020-01-17}}</ref>
 
==Behaviour==
The Pacific black duck has declined sharply in numbers in New Zealand and several Australian islands due to competition from and hybridisation with the introduced mallard.<ref name="Gillespie" /> Rhymer ''et al.'' (1994) say their data "points to the eventual loss of identity of the grey duck as a separate species in New Zealand, and the subsequent dominance of a hybrid swarm akin to the Mariana Mallard." Studies of their three species of parasitic feather lice support this prediction.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=The ectoparasites of hybrid ducks in New Zealand (Mallard x Grey Duck)|last=Bulgarella|first=M|date=2018|journal=International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife|volume=7|issue=3|pages=335–342|doi=10.1016/j.ijppaw.2018.09.005|pmc=6154467|pmid=30258780}}</ref> This same impact is occurring in many areas of Australia, Tasmania and Adelaide in particular.
===Breeding===
The nest is usually placed in a hole in a tree, but sometimes an old nest of a corvid is used and occasionally the nest will be placed on the ground. The clutch of 8–10 pale cream eggs is incubated only by the female. The eggs hatch after 26–32 days. The [[precocial]] downy ducklings leave the nest site when dry and are cared for by the female. They can fly when around 58 days of age.<ref name=hanzab>{{cite book | editor1-last=Marchant | editor1-first=S. | editor2-last=Higgins | editor2-first=P.G. | year=1990 | chapter=''Anas superciliosa'' Pacific Black Duck | title=Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds. Volume 1: Ratites to ducks; Part B, Australian pelican to ducks | location=Melbourne, Victoria | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=978-0-19-553068-1 | pages=1320–1332 | chapter-url=https://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/sites/all/files/030_Grey%20Duck.pdf }}</ref>
 
===Feeding===
The Pacific black duck is mainly vegetarian, feeding on seeds of aquatic plants. This diet is supplemented with small crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic insects. Food is obtained by 'dabbling', where the bird plunges its head and neck underwater and upends, raising its rear end vertically out of the water. Occasionally, food is sought on land in damp grassy areas.<ref name=TAM/>
 
==Conservation status==
The Pacific black duck has declined sharply in numbers in New Zealand and several Australian islands due to competition from and hybridisation with the introduced mallard.<ref name="Gillespie" /> Rhymer ''et al.'' (1994) say their data "points to the eventual loss of identity of the grey duck as a separate species in New Zealand, and the subsequent dominance of a hybrid swarm akin to the Mariana Mallard." Studies of their three species of parasitic feather lice support this prediction.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=The ectoparasites of hybrid ducks in New Zealand (Mallard x Grey Duck)|last=Bulgarella|first=M|date=2018|journal=International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife|volume=7|issue=3|pages=335–342|doi=10.1016/j.ijppaw.2018.09.005|pmc=6154467|pmid=30258780|bibcode=2018IJPPW...7..335B }}</ref> This same impact is occurring in many areas of Australia, Tasmania and Adelaide in particular.
 
It was assumed that far more mallard drakes mate with grey duck females than vice versa based on the fact that most hybrids show a mallard-type plumage, but this is not correct; it appears that the mallard phenotype is [[Dominance (genetics)|dominant]], and that the degree to which species contributed to a hybrid's ancestry cannot be determined from the plumage.<ref name=Rhymer1994/> The main reasons for displacement of the grey duck seem to be physical dominance of the larger mallards, combined with a marked population decline of the grey duck due to overhunting in the mid-20th century.<ref name=Williams/>
 
==Feeding==
The Pacific black duck is mainly vegetarian, feeding on seeds of aquatic plants. This diet is supplemented with small crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic insects. Food is obtained by 'dabbling', where the bird plunges its head and neck underwater and upends, raising its rear end vertically out of the water. Occasionally, food is sought on land in damp grassy areas.<ref name=TAM/>
 
==Various views and plumages==
<gallery>
File:Pacific Black Ducks - Durack Lakes - Palmerston - Northern Territory - Australia.jpg|Durack Lakes, Palmerston, Northern Territory
File:Pacific black duck 02.jpg|At [[Treasury Gardens]], Melbourne
File:Pacific Black Duck - AndrewMercer - DSC07814.jpg|Female with ducklings
File:Pacific Black Duck JCB.jpg|Centenary Lakes, Cairns, Queensland
File:PBD mallard hybrid (1).jpg|mallard x pacific black duck hybrid, Hobart
File:PBD hybrid.jpg|mallard x pacific black duck hybrid, Richmond Tasmania
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<ref name=TAM>{{cite web |url=https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/animals/birds/pacific-black-duck/ |title=Pacific Black Duck |publisher=The Australian Museum |access-date=March 6, 2019}}</ref>
}}
 
==Further reading==
* {{cite book|author1=Heather, Barrie D. |author2=Robertson, Hugh A. |name-list-style=amp |year=1996|title=The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand|publisher=Viking|location=Auckland|isbn=0-670-86911-2}}
 
==External links==
{{Commons category|Anas superciliosa}}
{{Wikispecies|Anas superciliosa}}
* [http://www.nzbirds.com/birds/parera.html Parera, the grey duck]
 
{{Taxonbar|from=Q757271}}