Sichelente

Bestimmung

Measuring 42–60 cm (16.5–23.5 in) and weighing around one kilogram (2.2 lb), it is a long-necked duck with brown upperparts, paler underparts and a white rump. The chest is chestnut with thin black bars, while long black-margined plumes arise from its flanks. Its bill and legs are pink, and its iris is yellow. The male and female are similar in appearance. The species has a characteristic lowered neck and short, dark, rounded wings while flying.<p>The call is a characteristic whistle which gives the bird its common name.

Taxonomie

Described by English naturalist Thomas Campbell Eyton in 1838, its specific epithet honours its namer. Its generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek terms dendron "tree", and kuknos (via Latin cygnus) "swan". Alternate common names include; Eyton's plumed, red-legged or whistling tree-duck, and grey or red-legged whistler.

Wissenschaftlicher Name

Dendrocygna eytoni

Autorität

(Eyton, 1838)

Ordnung

Gänsevögel

Familie

Entenvögel (Anatidae)

Gattung

Dendrocygna

Verbreitung und Lebensraum

The range is eastern, northern and central Australia from the Kimberley across the Top End and Cape York, down to southern Queensland and northern New South Wales on the east coast, although may reach north-western Victoria inland, in the vicinity of the Murray River. It is also found in New Guinea. The preferred habitat is tall grassland and savanna, often near bodies of water.

Zugverhalten

Resident species

Schutzstatus

Bestandstrend

stable