Anatra dal becco rosso

Identificazione

The red-billed teal is 43–48 centimetres (17–19 in) long and has a blackish cap and nape, contrasting pale face, and bright red bill. The body plumage is a dull dark brown scalloped with white. Flight reveals that the secondary flight feathers are buff with a black stripe across them. The sexes are similar, but juveniles are duller than adults.<p>This is a quiet species, but the displaying male has a whzzt call, whereas the female has a soft mallard-like quack.<p>The red-billed teal is a bird of freshwater habitats in fairly open country and is an omnivore. It feeds by dabbling for plant food, or foraging on land mainly in the evening or at night. It nests on the ground in dense vegetation near water.<p>This is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

Tassonomia

The red-billed teal was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other ducks, geese and swans in the genus Anas and coined the binomial name Anas erythrorhyncha. Gmelin based his description on the "Crimson-billed duck" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham specied the type locality as the Cape of Good Hope. The genus name Anas is the Latin word for a duck. The specific epithet erythrorhyncha combines the Ancient Greek eruthros meaning "red" with rhunkhos meaning "bill". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

Nome scientifico

Anas erythrorhyncha

Autorità

Gmelin, JF, 1789

Ordine

Anseriformi

Famiglia

Anatidae

Genere

Anas

Areale e habitat

Migrazione

Resident species

Conservazione

Tendenza della popolazione

declining