Laysan Duck
Anas laysanensis
Highly range-restricted duck with a splotchy white “comma” around each eye. Found only on the Midway Islands, where it is the only resident duck. Forages on sand flats and small saline ponds and lakes on the islands, frequently consuming brine flies. Capable of flight, but typically only traverses short distances within islands. Gives various nasal and grating quacks.
Identification
The Laysan duck is teal-sized and dark brown, with a prominent white eye-ring. The bill is short and spatulate, dark green with variable black blotching in males, and dull orange with variable black blotching in females. The Laysan duck usually has a ring of fat around its neck. Some males show faint iridescence on the head or neck and have slightly upturned central tail feathers. The wing has an iridescent purplish-green patch (speculum feathers) in both sexes. Leucistism, or extensive white feathering, is common on the head and neck of older birds. The legs and feet are orange, usually brighter in the male. The annual pre-basic molt is complete, and the ducks lose all their flight feathers and become incapable of flight until new feathers grow in. Wild ducks have been known to live to the age of twelve years, and captive birds have lived to the age of eighteen.
Taxonomy
Named by Lionel Walter Rothschild in 1892, the Laysan duck is named after Laysan island, one of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It is a member of the mallard clade of dabbling ducks, and is a highly unusual species, both behaviorally and genetically. Recent evidence suggests they originated from an east Asian, southern hemisphere ancestor of mallards, not from stray migratory mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) as had been reported in the past.
- Scientific name
- Anas laysanensis
- Authority
- Rothschild, 1892
- Order
- Anseriformes
- Family
- Anatidae
- Genus
- Anas
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: rising.
- Population trend
- rising
Photos
Distribution
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