From Opus

Male
Photo by qiubird
Bicentennial Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, September 2003

Anas castanea

[edit] Identification

Male

• Dark brown upperparts and wings
• Dark green-purple wing panel edged white
• Brown underwing
• Chestnut neck, breast and flanks
• Green head
• Black undertail with white patch

Female
Photo by Neil
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, June 2004

• Dark red eye
• Bluish-grey bill
• Greenish-grey legs and feet
  

Female

• Dark brown and grey mottling
• Pale, brown streaked throat
• Dark eye stripe

[edit] Similar Species

The female is very similar to the Grey Teal.

[edit] Distribution

Swamps and marshes of south-western and south-eastern Australia (New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia) and Tasmania.

[edit] Taxonomy

Male
Photo by fthsm
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, December 2007

This is a monotypic species^[1].

[edit] Habitat

Breeds in brackish or fresh swamps near coast, otherwise coastal estuaries, saltmarshes, lakes, urban wetlands, tidal mudflats, estuaries; inlets, islands, and montane lakes

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

The diet includes seeds, insects, vegetation, molluscs and crustaceans.

[edit] Breeding

Monogamous, they nest over water, in hollow tree stumps, lining the nest with down. Only the female incubates the eggs.

Male
Photo by Nora
Caroline Springs, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, May 2007

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Avibase
3. Birds in Backyards
4. BF Member observations

• List of references

[edit] External Links