Waterfowl in North America pt 2: Sheldgeese to Dabbling Ducks

When did St. Louis get White-Winged Wood Duck?

It was definitely not empty this summer...

 

They only list a dozen or so species and almost all native. I suspect you saw a lot of visitors.

 

Here is a list of every waterfowl species I saw at the zoo in June (and where I saw them):

1904 World's Fair Flight Cage and Edward K. Love Conservation Foundation Cypress Swamp
Blue-Winged Teal
Northern Pintail
Northern Shoveler
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Canvasback
Wood Duck
Ruddy Duck

Bird House
Ringed Teal

Lakeside Crossing/Chain of Lakes
Black-Necked Swan
Red-Crested Pochard
Egyptian Goose
Cackling Goose
Canada Goose (most were probably wild but I suspect some captive)
Mallard (most were probably wild but I suspect some captive)
Bar-Headed Goose
Swan Goose (wild type)
Chestnut Teal

Penguin & Puffin Coast
King Eider

The Wild
Wood Duck

Not an awful collection.

 

they used to have like 3 x that many species (or more)

 

Sadly the same is happening in most zoos. Very, very few are actually growing their collections any more.

There was one on exhibit on my visit this summer in the Bird House.

 

Sedgwick County Zoo now has Pacific Black Duck and Australian Hardhead

 

I'm inclined to think that Egyptian Goose is an undercount. Can't speak to any others that have them other than St. Louis though

 

St. Louis doesn't seem to have Egyptian goose anymore. Also, Grant's Farm has some mallards in their waterfowl lake and in Mirror Lake and the Deer Park visible on the tram ride. I suspect its a mix of wild and captive, but its hard to know for sure

 

Unless any had some captive traits (in which case they would not be included in this thread anyway), it is safe to assume all of those Mallards are wild.

 

I don't see any mention of yellow-billed ducks. Are they not dabbling ducks? I believe Cincinnati Zoo and Rosamond Gifford Zoo have them, in addition to a few other locations.

 

Same species as Yellow-billed Teal.

 

I thought yellow-billed ducks are native to East and South-central Africa whereas yellow-billed teals are found in Patagonia. I am probably wrong, but have you actually heard that they are the same species, or are you just assuming that. Again, I will accept that I'm wrong, but want to be sure.

I apologize if I have come across as rude, my communication skills are poor, something that I can attribute to my diagnoses.

 

There is a similarly named species in Patagonia, the Yellow-billed Pintail. I assume you're thinking of that.

 

Yellow-billed Duck, Yellow-billed Teal, and Yellow-billed Pintail are three different species, all in the genus Anas.

Yellow-billed Duck (A. undulata) - Africa
Yellow-billed Teal (A. flavirostris) - S. America
Yellow-billed Pintail (A. georgica) - S. America

Omaha and Jacksonville have the African species but are listed under "Yellow-billed Teal", so maybe that list is for Yellow-billed Duck... but it also says "Sharp-winged Teal" which specifically refers to one of the Yellow-billed Teal ssp. Sylvan Heights has all three species.

 

All three species are present and the respective lists are for the intended species; however there seems to be some confusion between identifying undulata and flavirostris. Not sure where that came from but I have moved Jacksonville and Omaha to undulata on the master list. Sylvan Heights is already on all three species.

 

I didn't see a heading for undulata so I thought maybe they'd been combined with flavirostris or one was left off for some reason. There's other holders for undulata besides those two also - they were unsigned at Abilene last year, for example.

 

All three species are present on the master list - undulata was a late entry and so doesn't show on the list here. The waterfowl list badly needs updated, I just haven't gotten around to dealing with this massive group plagued by identification complexities.

 

Do many zoos display sea ducks like eiders? Or is that a different thread I didn't see?

 

I originally set it up as two threads due to the size and then ended up consolidating with how I decided to do the update. When I get around to updating it I'll probably leave it consolidated and use spoilers.