113.
Southern Pochard Netta erythrophthalma (Bruineend)
Order: Anseriformes. Family: Anatidae
- Southern Pochard Netta erythrophthalma.jpg (36.87 KiB) Viewed 826 times
Description
Size 48 to 51 cm. Weight 800 g. Small to medium-sized duck with characteristic red eye, blue-grey bill, black nail and grey legs and feet with black webs.
The male has a black head, neck and breast with a purple iridescence, bright red eyes, pale blue-grey beak with black tip, chestnut coloured flanks, dark brown tail, dark brown upperparts, and legs and feet are blue-grey to blackish. In flight, both sexes show a distinct white wing bar along the base of the flight feathers but lack a coloured speculum.
Female: Nape, back, scapulars, wings and tail as male, but paler; remainder of plumage lighter and browner. Head brown with white blaze at base of bill extending to chin and throat; white crescent starts behind eye and extends to foreneck. Extent and pattern of white very variable. Underparts from upper breast to undertail coverts mottled white, barred fulvous brown (mottling may be absent, giving darker appearance). Bill olive-grey, nail blackish. Eyes red-brown.
Immature: Like adult. Chick: Brownish black except for white belly; side of head white bordered below by brown stripe from bill to nape.
Similar species: Male told from
Maccoa Duck in darker cokouring with uniform head and back, longer neck. Female differs from female Maccoa by whitish crescent on sides on head, white throat and bill-base.
Distribution
Found in North and South America, as well as in Africa south of the Sahara. (Eritrea and Angola through to southern Africa).
N. e. brunnea is distributed from South Africa to Ethiopia. Southern African populations are concentrated in the southwestern Cape Province, South African highveld, southeastern Botswana, and northern Botswana to the Zimbabwean plateau. This common duck is a resident and spring/summer visitor in flocks of up to 5000 birds in the southwestern Cape Province. It is thinly distributed and nomadic in the Free State and Transvaal, and scarce in the Transvaal and Swaziland. Up to 200 birds may occur on the Nyl floodplain after good rains. In KwaZulu-Natal it is most common inland.
Taxonomy
There are two subspecies, the South American (Southern) Pochard
N. e. erythrophthalma and the African (Southern) Pochard
N. e. brunnea.
Habitat
In southern Africa it can be found where there are wetlands with deep, clear water and emergent vegetation. It chooses deep seasonal or permanent freshwater pans, vleis, sewage ponds and dams, usually with clear water, with or without emergent vegetation, and seasonal floodplains.
Movements
The African Pochard occurs from the Cape to the Ethiopian highlands on water bodies with or without emergent vegetation. They are suspected to have been strong migrants in the past but the construction of numerous farm dams seems to allow them a more sedentary lifestyle. t is quite mobile, as birds ringed in the North-West Province have been found in northern Namibia, and even Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya, more than 3000 km away. They reach highest concentrations in Africa's central plateaus and in the south-western winter rainfall region.
Social Organization
This bird is sociable and gregarious. It has been seen in groups of up to 5,000.
Diet
It feeds mainly on plant products (water-lilies, seeds, rhizomes and corms, long-awned water grass leaves and fruits), with very small amounts of invertebrates (insects, gastropods, fluke snails) making up the rest of its diet. It usually forages by diving, sometimes travelling 18m. It also dabbles and, uncommonly, forages on waterside vegetation.
Breeding
Monogamous solitary nester, often with nests only a few metres apart. Courtship is elaborate, involving unique calls, preening, and head bobbing. The female builds the nest, using materials from nearby aquatic plants. The nest is a broad bowl, 30-40cm wide and about 8 cm deep, built with leaves and stems, sometimes lined with down feathers. It is usually placed in thick vegetation (e.g. reeds or sedges) on the water's edge or up to 20m away. Rarely, it uses old nests of Red-knobbed coot. It lays 4-15 eggs, at 1 day intervals, which are incubated by the female for 20-28 days. The chicks, once hatched, are immediately led by their mother to the water, as they know how to dive and swim by instinct, The chicks fledge at 49-65 days old. The chicks feed for themselves, with the female disturbing floating vegetation by sweeping its bill while the chicks grab bits of food. The chicks eat about 20% insects and 80% plant matter.
Call
Not very vocal; male gives soft
prerr, prerr, female a nasal
krrrow in flight.
Listen to Bird Call.
Status
Common resident. The Southern Pochard is not threatened, in fact it has benefited greatly from human development.
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Female © Sharifa
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