Yellow-billed Duck - BirdForum Opus

Photo by Mybs
Helderberg Nature Reserve, Western Cape, South Africa, September 2004

Anas undulata

Identification

• Grey body
• Darker head
• Bright yellow bill
• Wings: white below with white-bordered green speculum (blue in the northern race)
  

Sexes similar. Juveniles slightly duller than adults

Photo by nkgray
Marievale wetland, Gauteng, South Africa, December 2005

Distribution

Africa
Western Africa: Mali, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho and Swaziland.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Anas undulata has two subspecies:^[1]

• A. u. undulata

• Locally from Kenya (upper Blue Nile region) to Uganda to Angola and South Africa

• A. u. ruppelli

• Ethiopia to northern Kenya and southern Sudan

Habitat

Freshwater in fairly open country.

Behaviour

Diet

The diet includes plant food for which it dabbles mainly in the evening or at night.

Breeding

It nests on the ground in dense vegetation near water. The clutch consists of 6-12 eggs.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2014. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.9., with updates to August 2014. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Avibase
3. Wikipedia

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Yellow-billed Duck. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 23 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Yellow-billed_Duck

External Links

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