Philippine Duck - Profile | Traits | Facts | Threats

The Philippine duck, scientific name Anas luzonica is a big dabbling duck of the genus Anas. Its native name is papan. It is endemic to the Philippines. As few as 5,000 might stay. Overhunting and habitat loss have contributed to its decline.

Philippine duck Profile

The Philippine duck could be present in each freshwater and saltwater habitat, together with small streams in forests, lakes, marshes, swamps, mangroves, tidal creeks, and the open sea.

It prefers areas with marsh vegetation, which gives very important meals and cover and is discovered as much as elevations of 300 to 400 meters.

It eats shrimp, fish, bugs, and vegetation, and it frequents all forms of wetlands.

Range

Endemic to the Philippines the place it has been recorded from all the main islands and plenty of the smaller islands.

Distribution and Habitat

The Philippine duck is understood to inhabit all the main Philippine islands and eight minor islands, however for the reason that Eighties most sightings have been on Luzon and Mindanao. Long-distance vagrants have been sighted in Okinawa and Taiwan.

It is present in all forms of wetlands inside its range, however, its most popular habitat is shallow freshwater marshland.

Philippine duck Description

The Philippine duck is a big conspicuous duck. It has a black crown, nape, and eye stripe, with a cinnamon head and neck. The remainder of its body is greyish brown with a shiny green speculum.

Its legs are greyish brown, and its bill is bluish-grey. The feminine is considerably smaller than the male, however is in any other case the same.

With its rusty-cinnamon head and bluish-grey bill, the Philippine duck is a relatively distinctive bird. The cinnamon-colored head is boldly adorned with a black crown and a black stripe by way of the attention, whereas the remainder of the plumage is brownish-grey.

When in flight, a well-defined patch of shiny green on the wing could be clearly seen, which is bordered with black and has a slender white edge, and the underside of the wing can be white.

Immature Philippine geese have barely duller plumage than that of adults, whereas ducklings are olive-brown with a shiny yellow face and neck. It calls with a typical duck-like quack.

Philippine duck Feeding Behavior

Most energetic within the early morning, late afternoon, and through moonlit nights, the Philippine duck forages in shallow water for crops, mollusks, and crustaceans.

Fish and frogs may be consumed, in addition to bugs, rice, and the shoots of younger crops; some farmers have complained of the injury this duck had accomplished to newly sown fields and sprouting crops.

Philippine duck Breeding

This shy and nervous species, which is able to shortly fly off if approached, could also be seen in giant flocks outside of the breeding season, however often happens in pairs or small teams.

The breeding season is believed to increase between March and November, with a peak in exercise in July and August, though this will likely fluctuate all through the range.

The Philippine duck constructs a nest obscured from view under a thick cover of aquatic vegetation, resembling water bindweed. Clutches encompass 8 to 10, generally 15 to 16, eggs, that are boring white with a brownish tinge. These are incubated for 25 to 26 days.

Status

The Philippine duck is rated susceptible on the IUCN Red List. The species has experienced steep population decreases for the reason that Seventies primarily as a consequence of looking and habitat loss.

The geese have been closely hunted for the reason that Nineteen Sixties with 1000’s being hunted a year by way of the late Eighties.

Habitat loss is especially as a consequence of wetland drainage, aquaculture, mangrove destruction, and fishpond creation.

Conservation

The species happens in a number of protected areas together with Manleluag Spring Protected Landscape, Mounts Iglit-Baco National Park, Naujan Lake National Park, Bataan National Park, Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park, and Olango Island, a Ramsar wetland.

Philippine duck Threats

Hunting and habitat loss pose the best menace to the Philippine duck’s survival, and proof from the final 20 years counsel that numbers are declining.

Since the Nineteen Sixties, high ranges of looking and trapping of this species have been recorded, with 1000’s allegedly shot every week in sure months within the late Eighties, for each food and sport.

Many wetland habitats of the Philippines have been drained or transformed for aquaculture and shrimp- or fish ponds.

Most devastating to this species was the drainage of Candaba Marsh within the Nineties, which was as soon as some of the necessary sites for the Philippine duck, however is now too dry to assist a big population. The latest in-depth use of pesticides on rice fields may have had severe impacts on the Philippine duck.

Philippine Duck – Profile | Traits | Facts | Threats | Breeding