The pink-eared duck, scientific name Malacorhynchus membranaceus is a species of duck present in Australia. It has a big spatulate bill just like the Australasian shoveler, however is smaller at 38–40 cm size.
Pink-eared duck Profile
Its brown back and crown, black and white barred sides, and black eye patches on its in any other case white face make this bird unmistakable. Juveniles are barely duller, however, in any other case, all plumages are comparable.
Its vernacular name refers to a pink spot within the nook fashioned by the blackhead pattern; it is just noticeable at shut distance nonetheless, making the seldom-used Australian name of zebra duck more applicable.
Endemic to Australia, the Pink-eared Duck is widespread, aside from within the driest components of Western and South Australia.
Its best population density is in south-eastern Australia (though not in great numbers alongside the eastern seaboard), and the south-west nook of Western Australia. It is an uncommon visitor to Tasmania.
The pink-eared duck favors inland wetlands and avoids coastal wetlands with high rainfall. It tends to avoid the shore when feeding. It prefers stagnant, shallow water wealthy in aquatic life, together with sewage ponds, and avoids fast-moving, clear or deep water.
The Pink-eared Duck is called after an insignificant spot of pink feathers on the side of the drake’s head. More hanging is the daring black-and-white stripes that dominate the geese’ neck, breast, and underparts, giving rise to its vernacular name of Zebra Duck or Zebra Teal.
Pink-eared Ducks have odd-shaped bills, developed to feed in a specialized method: water is sucked by the bill-tip, then expelled by grooves alongside the side of the bill, filtering out tiny invertebrates within the process.
The Pink-eared Duck is discovered all through Australia however solely sometimes in Tasmania.
Distribution and habitat
The Pink-eared Duck is present in timbered areas close to water. It prefers shallow, temporary waters, nonetheless open wetlands help giant flocks. It is an extremely dispersive and nomadic species.
Widely distributed all through Australia and extremely mobile, these geese can seem anyplace there’s standing water, particularly in dry inland areas, the place annual rainfall does not often exceed 15 in (380 mm).
pink-eared duck Description
The Pink-eared Duck is a small duck with an enormous square-tipped gray bill and strongly barred brown flanks. It has a big brown eye patch on a white finely barred face.
There is a small pink patch behind the attention. Upper components are brown, underparts white barred darkish brown. The upper wing is brown with a white trailing edge and the underwing linings are white, finely barred brown. In-flight, there’s a daring white crescent on the rump.
The pink-eared duck is a small duck with a darkish eye patch and closely barred sides. In good lighting circumstances, a small patch of pink feathers may be seen behind the attention.
Like the blue duck of New Zealand, the Pink-eared duck possesses a laterally protruding membrane of skin on the tip of the bill.
Although spelled in another way, the genus name of the Pink-eared duck Malacorhynchus, is shared with the species name of the blue duck malacorhynchos; each mean ‘soft-beak’).
At a distance, the boldly barred flanks, lower neck and breast, mixed with the darkish eye patch, wide-tipped bill, and whitish face are the most effective identification options.
In flight, the tail tip and trailing fringe of the wings are white, as is a slender band on the rump. The head is held high while flying. The sexes are the same, with the feminine barely smaller. Immature birds are paler than adults, with the pink ear patch much less vivid.
Pink-eared duck Food
They are depending on plankton, in addition to crustaceans, mollusks, and bugs. Their bill is effectively designed for straining minute organisms, with pliable mandibular flaps that channel water in a fashion that allows the geese to filter algae and different plankton effectively.
They additionally feed by vortexing, through which two geese spin a couple of central levels with the head of 1 opposite the tail of the opposite, concentrating meals in a gyrating water column.
Pink-eared duck Voice
Sounds described include a trilling, chirruping, or twittering, typically given in flight; a high-pitched, sharp ee-jik or tu-ick; a low nasal grunk; and the bill-tossing call whee-ooo, weeee-you or who-ee-oo.
Similar species
The Australasian shoveler shares the large bill of the Pink-eared duck, however is significantly bigger, has a flat brow main in a straight line to the bill (the pink-eared has a prominent brow), and the shoveler sits a lot lower within the water.
Feeding Behavior
Pink-eared Ducks feed in shallow warmish waters. The extremely specialized bill is fringed with positive lamellae (grooves) to filter out the microscopic crops and animals which make up the majority of its diet.
Pink-eared duck Breeding
Nesting is stimulated by the drying and filling of pools that promote elevated ranges of natural materials. In good years, giant numbers of pink-eared geese focus in shallow flood plains. However, when conditions don’t meet specs, reproduction could also be fully curtailed.
Breeding can happen all year round and is dependant on floodwaters. The nest is a rounded mass of down positioned in a hole or on a stump above the water.
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Pink-eared Ducks often take over nests constructed by different birds, particularly the Eurasian Coot, Fulica atra, and the Black-tailed Native Hen, Gallinula ventralis.
Pink-eared Ducks kind of monogamous, in all probability life-long pair-bonds. The feminine incubates the eggs, and each parent brood the younger.
Pink-eared duck Ecology
Even while in giant flocks, the Pink-eared duck stays in pairs. These will feed in a head-to-tail vortexing movement, every benefiting from the opposite disturbing aquatic organisms as they rotate.
When feeding, their bills are incessantly submerged to the road of the eyes, and they don’t ‘up-end’. They typically perch out of the water, e.g. on logs and branches. They fly with speedy wingbeats, and when flushed will circle wetlands.
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