I disagree with Philip. I think it is a black duckling. The
top eye stripe is too big (wood ducks look like a line). The head is too round
and rises at the front/middle (unlike woodducks which have bigger napes), the
head to body ratio is more like a black duck (wood ducks have bigger bodies),
the beak is flatter than a wood ducks which appear more triangular in cross
section. I guess some of these features could be distorted by the angle of the
head in the photo, and all features are relative. I am happy to be proven wrong over time, if they are
lucky. I don't have Philips book, but perhaps he could explain why he
picked wood duck.
At Mt Majura on Friday I saw a noisy friarbird hovering
above phalaris grass, only 20cm above, it would then grab at the seed heads,
presumably catching grasshoppers or other insects that had been disturbed by the
wingbeats. It did this repeatedly at least 15 times. I have never seen this
behaviour by this species before, has anyone else?
Also saw a dollarbird
and 2 grey butcherbirds. Lots of crimson rosellas
feeding on casuarina cones, on Daviesia mimosoides (egg and bacon pea) pods and
cherry ballart-exocarpus 'fruits'.
Benj Whitworth
Roger,
That seems like a bad case of abandonment. The "crows" would
be Australian Ravens. You ask:
Is it possible to tell Wood Duck from Black Duck at
this age?" Yes. I would say the picture is a Wood Duck. A reference is Plate V
(page 242 - 243) of Frith's 1967 book Waterfowl in Australia.
That shows all our little duckies.
Philip
-----Original Message-----From:
Roger Curnow <> To:
COG <>
Date: Sunday, 19 December 2004 9:28
Subject: [canberrabirds]
are you my mother...?
This morning (near UC)
in an area where there
would normally be maybe 20 Woodducks and half that number of
Blackducks
and where i have been watching a family of seven
Woodducks for about a month,
I observed 10 ducklings (not much more than a
day old i suspect, that is i hadn't seen then before)
and though i watched
for half an hour no adult came within 100 metres.
The nearest adult ducks were/was a tribe of maybe
nine at least ( i would guess) 150 metres away.
They
(the ducklings) were inspected by a couple of crows and a pair of
currawongs without any adult showing interest.
This was not the behaviour pattern of the parents
of the previous brood.
Is it normal behaviour ?
Is it possible to tell Woodduck from Blackduck at
this age ?
roger curnow
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