41-460: Tachyeres patachonicus Tachyeres pteneres Tachyeres brachypterus Tachyeres leucocephalus The steamer ducks are a genus ( Tachyeres ) of ducks in the family Anatidae . All of the four species occur at the southern cone of South America in Chile and Argentina, and all except the flying steamer duck are flightless ; even this one species capable of flight rarely takes to
82-453: A Least Concern species, however increased nest predation of flightless steamer duck nests by American minks was reported to be a potential future threat to duck populations in Tierra del Fuego wildlife areas. Anatidae The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks , geese , and swans . The family has a cosmopolitan distribution , occurring on all
123-659: A broad and elongated general body plan. Diving species vary from this in being rounder. Extant species range in size from the cotton pygmy goose , at as little as 26.5 cm (10.5 in) and 164 g (5.8 oz), to the trumpeter swan , at as much as 183 cm (6 ft) and 17.2 kg (38 lb). The largest anatid ever known is the extinct flightless Garganornis ballmanni at 22 kg (49 lb). The wings are short and pointed, and supported by strong wing muscles that generate rapid beats in flight . They typically have long necks, although this varies in degree between species. The legs are short, strong, and set far to
164-428: A candidate gene for flightlessness in steamer ducks. This finding, combined with the range of flight capability, means the evolutionary history of the group may not be so clear cut. There is genomic evidence of recent speciation into four Tachyeres species. Flightless Tachyeres are thought to be undergoing a modern evolutionary transition to flightlessness, which explains the range of flight capability observed across
205-487: A new partner the following year, whereas the larger swans, geese and some of the more territorial ducks maintain pair bonds over a number of years, and even for life in some species. However, forced extrapair copulation among anatids is common, occurring in 55 species in 17 genera. Anatidae is a large proportion of the 3% of bird species to possess a penis , though they vary significantly in size, shape, and surface elaboration. Most species are adapted for copulation on
246-706: A number of other ducks occasionally lay eggs in the nests of conspecifics (members of the same species) in addition to raising their own broods. Duck, eider, and goose feathers and down have long been popular for bedspreads, pillows, sleeping bags, and coats. The members of this family also have long been used for food. Humans have had a long relationship with ducks, geese, and swans; they are important economically and culturally to humans, and several duck species have benefited from an association with people. However, some anatids are agricultural pests , and have acted as vectors for zoonoses such as avian influenza . Since 1600, five species of ducks have become extinct due to
287-450: A paraphyletic organization, as shown above. There are multiple possible explanations of these organizations. It is unlikely that flightlessness evolved once in all Tachyeres and then disappeared in T. patachonicus , because there is no evidence for a reversal of evolution, and these reversals are extremely rare. It is more likely that flightlessness evolved independently in each steamer duck species. The DYRK1A enzyme has been identified as
328-405: A thin and sensitive layer of skin on top (which has a leathery feel when touched). For most species, the shape of the bill tends to be more flattened to a greater or lesser extent. These contain serrated lamellae which are particularly well defined in the filter-feeding species. Their feathers are excellent at shedding water due to special oils. Many of the ducks display sexual dimorphism , with
369-495: A ‘rasping’ grunt, a ‘ticking’ grunt, and a ‘sibilant’ grunt. Flying steamer ducks undergo three molts per annual cycle, and these molts vary widely with geographic location. The wear and degradation on the primary and secondary feathers of observed flying steamer ducks varies depending on the location and flight behavior of the individuals. Flying steamer ducks inhabit aquatic areas at the southern tip of South America, specifically Chile and Argentina , Tierra del Fuego , and
410-665: Is small, mtDNA results must be considered with caution. While a comprehensive review of the Anatidae which unites all evidence into a robust phylogeny is still lacking, the reasons for the confusing data are at least clear: As demonstrated by the Late Cretaceous fossil Vegavis iaai —an early modern waterbird which belonged to an extinct lineage—the Anatidae are an ancient group among the modern birds. Their earliest direct ancestors, though not documented by fossils yet, likewise can be assumed to have been contemporaries with
451-542: Is the first to dive, but within pairs the first to dive is consistent in all observed diving instances. Flying steamer ducks share dietary preferences with other steamer duck species and have been reported to feed on mollusks and crustaceans as well as other marine invertebrates, but little is known about the precise species that steamer ducks prey on. Both flying steamer ducks and flightless steamer ducks experience nest predation by various avian and mammalian predators, including Chimango Caracaras , * Crested Caracaras ,
SECTION 10
#1732782601784492-599: The Chubut steamer duck ( Tachyeres leucocephalus ), and the Falkland steamer duck ( Tachyeres brachypterus ). The steamer ducks are named for their method of mobility, as the manner in which they use wings and feet to paddle across the water resembles an old-time steam boat. The steamer ducks are members of the Southern Hemisphere shelducks clade Tadorninae . The three flightless species are monophyletic, with
533-534: The Falkland Islands . Genetic comparisons of Falkland Island steamer ducks suggest the species diverged from continental steamer duck species between 2.2 and 2.6 million years ago, coinciding with a proposed land bridge that may have once connected the Falkland Islands to the mainland. The three steamer duck species that inhabit the mainland share a common ancestor roughly 15,000 years ago, and
574-504: The Fuegian Culpeo Fox , and the introduced American mink . Besides nest predators, flying steamer ducks are threatened only by competition for resources. Both the males and females are notoriously pugnacious and have been described as intensely territorial and often unnecessarily aggressive towards other individuals and other species, regardless of whether or not that species poses a threat to or lives in competition with
615-519: The archipelago contains as Anseriformes Branta geese and their descendants, and the moa-nalos as mentioned above. The following taxa, although certainly new species, cannot be assigned even to subfamily; that Kauaʻi is the oldest of the large Hawaiian Islands, meaning the species may have been evolving in isolation for nearly 10 mya (since the Late Miocene ), does not help in determining their affinities: Similarly, Branta rhuax from
656-684: The crested , and the bronze-winged ducks . There are four species: [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The Chubut steamer duck was only described in 1981. Based on the Taxonomy in Flux from John Boyd's website. T. brachypterus (Latham 1790) (Falkland steamer duck) T. pteneres (Forster 1844) (Fuegian steamer duck) T. patachonicus (King 1831) (Flying steamer duck) T. leucocephalus Humphrey & Thompson 1981 (Chubut steamer duck) Flightless Tachyeres have
697-584: The family was introduced by the English zoologist William Elford Leach in a guide to the contents of the British Museum published in 1819. While the status of the Anatidae as a family is straightforward, and which species properly belong to it is little debated, the relationships of the different tribes and subfamilies within it are poorly understood. The listing in the box at right should be regarded as simply one of several possible ways of organising
738-420: The mergansers , are primarily piscivorous , and have serrated bills to help them catch fish. In a number of species, the young include a high proportion of invertebrates in their diets, but become purely herbivorous as adults. The anatids are generally seasonal and monogamous breeders. The level of monogamy varies within the family; many of the smaller ducks only maintain the bond for a single season and find
779-634: The Anatidae may be considered to consist of three subfamilies (ducks, geese, and swans, essentially) which contain the groups as presented here as tribes , with the swans separated as subfamily Cygninae , the goose subfamily Anserinae also containing the whistling ducks, and the Anatinae containing all other clades . For the living and recently extinct members of each genus, see the article List of Anatidae species . From subfossil bones found on Kauaʻi ( Hawaiian Islands ), two enigmatic waterfowl are known. The living and assignable prehistoric avifauna of
820-474: The Big Island of Hawaiʻi , and a gigantic goose-like anatid from Oʻahu are known only from very incomplete, and in the former case much damaged, bone fragments. The former has been alleged to be a shelduck, but this was generally dismissed because of the damage to the material and biogeographic considerations. The long-legged Kauaʻi bird, however, hints at the possibility of a former tadornine presence on
861-402: The Falkland Islands. Little is known about the breeding rituals of flying steamer ducks. They are thought to be mostly monogamous and spend much of their time together in pairs. They engage in highly ritualized mating, in which the male and female begin by dipping their bills into the water at increasingly fast paces before the female submerges almost completely into the water and is mounted by
SECTION 20
#1732782601784902-623: The ability to fly, and were vulnerable to human hunting pressure and introduced species . Other extinctions and declines are attributable to overhunting, habitat loss and modification, and hybridisation with introduced ducks (for example the introduced ruddy duck swamping the white-headed duck in Europe). Numerous governments and conservation and hunting organisations have made considerable progress in protecting ducks and duck populations through habitat protection and creation, laws and protection, and captive-breeding programmes. The name Anatidae for
943-426: The activities of humans, and subfossil remains have shown that humans caused numerous extinctions in prehistory. Today, many more are considered threatened . Most of the historic and prehistoric extinctions were insular species, vulnerable due to small populations (often endemic to a single island), and island tameness . Evolving on islands that lacked predators, these species lost antipredator behaviours, as well as
984-608: The air. They can be aggressive and are capable of chasing off predators like petrels. Bloody battles of steamer ducks with each other over territory disputes are observed in nature. They even kill waterbirds that are several times their size. The genus Tachyeres was introduced in 1875 by the English zoologist Richard Owen to accommodate the Falkland steamer duck . The genus name Tachyeres , "having fast oars " or "fast rower", comes from Ancient Greek ταχυ- "fast" + ἐρέσσω "I row (as with oars)". The common name "steamer ducks" arose because, when swimming fast, they flap their wings into
1025-731: The archipelago. The fossil record of anatids is extensive, but many prehistoric genera cannot be unequivocally assigned to present-day subfamilies for the reasons given above. For prehistoric species of extant genera, see the respective genus accounts. Dendrocheninae – a more advanced relative of the whistling-ducks or an ancestral relative of stifftail ducks paralleling whistling-ducks; if not extinct possibly belong in Oxyurinae (including Malacorhynchus ) Anserinae Tadorninae Anatinae Oxyurinae Incertae sedis Putative or disputed prehistoric anatids are: The Middle Oligocene Limicorallus (from Chelkar-Teniz ( Kazakhstan )
1066-479: The back of the body (more so in the more aquatic species), and have a leathery feel with a scaly texture. Combined with their body shape, this can make some species awkward on land, but they are stronger walkers than other marine and water birds such as grebes or petrels . They typically have webbed feet , though a few species such as the Nene have secondarily lost their webbing. The bills are made of soft keratin with
1107-456: The coastal South American regions. Tachyeres patachonicus The flying steamer duck ( Tachyeres patachonicus ), also known as the flying steamer-duck or flying steamerduck, is a species of South American duck in the family Anatidae . The flying steamer duck is one of four steamer ducks, in the genus Tachyeres , which also includes the Fuegian steamer duck ( Tachyeres pteneres ),
1148-516: The flying steamer ducks splitting off phylogenetically. It is the only steamer duck which can fly, and the only one to occur on inland fresh waters. However, some individual male flying steamer ducks within the species are incapable of flight due to excessive size and wing loadings . Though they are the smallest of the four Tachyeres species, flying steamer ducks share similar plumage traits with other steamer ducks including brown head and neck feathers with white stripes stretching from their eyes to
1189-456: The flying steamer ducks. Flying steamer ducks have been observed to target entire flocks of Silvery grebes and Hooded grebes and have also been observed to kill Red shovelers for seemingly no apparent reason. Male flying steamer ducks attack by grabbing their opponents by the neck and hitting their opponents on the head, neck or body using their carpal wing knobs. The flying steamer ducks are not an endangered species and are categorized as
1230-414: The genus. The largest males of the most volant species, the flying steamer duck, are completely incapable of flight, while other individuals rarely fly. The flying steamer duck is the only species to reside in landlocked bodies of water. Generally, island bound/isolated avian populations are more likely to experience evolution towards flightlessness, which may be the case for several Tachyeres populations in
1271-476: The male, after which the female and male raise their bills high into the air in a hostile fashion and grunt audibly. Both flightless and flying steamer ducks engage in foraging behaviors with interspecific and intersexual differences. Flying steamer ducks have almost exclusively been observed to forage in pairs, preferring to dive either around deep-water kelp beds or around shallow water zones. Males and females do not show consistencies among pairs in terms of who
Steamer duck - Misplaced Pages Continue
1312-537: The males being more brightly coloured than the females (although the situation is reversed in species such as the paradise shelduck ). The swans, geese, and whistling-ducks lack sexually dimorphic plumage. Anatids are vocal birds, producing a range of quacks, honks, squeaks, and trumpeting sounds, depending on species; the female often has a deeper voice than the male. Anatids are generally herbivorous as adults, feeding on various water-plants, although some species also eat fish, molluscs, or aquatic arthropods. One group,
1353-445: The many species within the Anatidae; see discussion in the next section. The systematics of the Anatidae are in a state of flux. Previously divided into six subfamilies, a study of anatomical characters by Livezey suggests the Anatidae are better treated in nine subfamilies. This classification was popular in the late 1980s to 1990s. But mtDNA sequence analyses indicate, for example, the dabbling and diving ducks do not belong in
1394-512: The napes of their necks, and brown-gray gradient body feathers. Their underbellies are mostly white, and their feet are orange. Female flying steamer ducks have smaller bills relative to males that are orange with black tips, while males have darker gray bills with slight yellow accents. Flying steamer ducks are also sexually dimorphic to the extent that males are heavier but have smaller cranial elements and wingspans than females. Males and females both possess cornified orange carpal knobs on
1435-412: The non-avian dinosaurs . The long period of evolution and shifts from one kind of waterbird lifestyle to another have obscured many plesiomorphies , while apparent apomorphies are quite often the result of parallel evolution , for example the "non-diving duck" type displayed by such unrelated genera as Dendrocygna , Amazonetta , and Cairina . For the fossil record, see below. Alternatively,
1476-488: The proximal part of the carpometacarpus bone, and these knobs are used in display as well as interspecies and intraspecies combat by males. Sexual dimorphism can also be observed in the duration and pitch of their various calls, which sound much like grunts . The females’ grunts have been described as lower pitched than the males’ grunts, and usually occur in rapid succession of similar pitch. Males have three distinct grunts that have been described as whistle-like, including
1517-457: The same subfamily. While shortcomings certainly occur in Livezey's analysis, mtDNA is an unreliable source for phylogenetic information in many waterfowl (especially dabbling ducks) due to their ability to produce fertile hybrids , in rare cases possibly even beyond the level of genus (see for example the " Barbary duck "). Because the sample size of many molecular studies available to date
1558-480: The species show genetic differentiation as well as different stages between flightless-ness and flying ability. For this reason, steamer ducks have been praised as an excellent potential genus for studying the evolution of flightless-ness in birds. Flying steamer ducks are widely distributed compared to other steamer duck species, likely due to their flying ability, and have been observed to reside in both freshwater and marine environments throughout Chile, Argentina, and
1599-457: The water as well as using their feet, creating an effect like a paddle steamer . They are usually placed in the shelduck subfamily Tadorninae. However, mtDNA sequence analyses of the cytochrome b and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 genes indicate that Tachyeres rather belongs in a distinct clade of aberrant South American dabbling ducks , which also includes the Brazilian ,
1640-464: The water only. They construct simple nests from whatever material is close at hand, often lining them with a layer of down plucked from the mother's breast. In most species, only the female incubates the eggs. The young are precocial , and are able to feed themselves from birth. One aberrant species, the black-headed duck , is an obligate brood parasite , laying its eggs in the nests of gulls and coots . While this species never raises its own young,
1681-731: The world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming , floating on the water surface, and, in some cases, diving in at least shallow water. The family contains around 174 species in 43 genera (the magpie goose is no longer considered to be part of the Anatidae and is now placed in its own family, Anseranatidae ). They are generally herbivorous and are monogamous breeders. A number of species undertake annual migrations . A few species have been domesticated for agriculture, and many others are hunted for food and recreation. Five species have become extinct since 1600, and many more are threatened with extinction . The ducks, geese, and swans are small- to large-sized birds with