From Opus

Male
Photo by Sussex bird man
Laguna Nimez, Argentina, November 2006

Oxyura ferruginea

[edit] Identification

Male has mostly chestnut body with white belly and black head with bright blue bill with a slight bump over the nostril in the southern ferruginea population. In the northern andina population, the head varies from black to having a lot of white, with many different intermediates known. Female is mostly brownish and has a head with dark crown to under eye, and one additional darker stripe below; in non-breeding plumage, both sexes has a single white(ish) stripe across face.

[edit] Distribution

South America: found in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile.

[edit] Taxonomy

Considered monotypic by Clements¹, but some recent field guides believe two subspecies exists: ferruginea, and andina. Some sources still consider Andean Duck a subspecies of Ruddy Duck Oxyura jamaicensis.²

Female
Photo by Robert Scanlon
Bogota, Colombia, January 2004

[edit] Habitat

Lakes, pools and marshes.

[edit] Behaviour

It cocks the tail much of the time. Except when on the nest spends much time on open water or diving for food.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Arthur Grosset
3. Restall et al. 2006. Birds of Northern South America. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300124156
4. Alvaro Jaramillo. 2003. Birds of Chile. Princeton Field Guides. ISBN 0-691-11740-3

• List of references

[edit] External Links

• Arthur Grosset's Birds