Tag: Waterfowl

Pink-headed duck Rhodonessa caryophyllacea
Pink-headed ducks reach a length of about 60 centimeters. The males (front) have a dark pink head and neck, chocolate-brown plumage, and a crest on the head. The females (back) and juveniles are overall somewhat paler. (© Henrik Grönvold (1858–1940), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Pink-headed duck

A bird with extraordinary traits About half a century after the extinction of the Himalayan quail in northern India, another monotypic species disappeared there: the pink-headed duck, also known as the carnation duck. Although much has been written about this duck, many accounts remain incomplete or contradictory. Only a few

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anas aucklandica
According to ornithologists Olson and Jouventin, the extinct Amsterdam duck was similar to the still extant, likewise flightless Auckland teal (Anas aucklandica; see image). The illustration by John Gerrard Keulemans appeared in Buller's Birds of New Zealand (1988). (© John Gerrard Keulemans, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Amsterdam duck

Barely larger than a thrush Both Amsterdam Island and Saint Paul are more than 3,000 kilometers away from continents. Nevertheless—or perhaps precisely because of this—the two islands were frequently visited by early seafarers and the animals that traveled with them, so that all endemic birds there had already been wiped

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