How many Waterfowl (Anatidae) species have you seen?

T

Tetzoo Quizzer

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Following on from the Pigeon and Dove thread, how many Waterfowl species have you seen? This time, I can start with 131 in the wild; I’ll count up captives I can add in due course.
 
I believe that I was the first person to care for every Australian waterfowl species at the same time. This was at CSIRO Wildlife Division in the ACT in 1965, when a study was being conducted by Doc. H.J.Frith. I have since also observed and filmed, or photographed, every one in the wild.
 
I've seen 38 total species in captivity and 34 of those species exclusively in captivity. I've also seen 7 species in the wild and 4 of those species exclusively in the wild.
 
11 wild and native
- Chiloe wigeon
- Spectacled duck
- Yellow-billed pintail
- Rosy-billed pochard
- Yellow-billed teal
- Cinnamon teal
- Red shoveler
- Coscoroba
- Black-necked swan
- Kelp goose
- Flightless steamer duck

3 feral:
- Mallard duck
- Muscovy duck
- Swan goose

And many more captive ones, I can't remember them all, most notorious would be the red-breasted goose, Bar-headed goose, nene, Andean goose and Puna teal.
 
I'm on 145 species, of which 75 in the wild and 140 in captivity. Given how widespread these are in European collections (Cologne alone holds more than 100 species...), many other will have seen loads as well. There are only a few species I have only seen in the wild: Torrent Duck, Falkland Steamer Duck, Lake Duck, Velvet Scoter and Kelp Goose.
 
i am on 43, 44 if you spit the bean gose
all but 7 in the wild 6 if the baical teal i saw this year get acepted as a genuin
and all of the wild once beside 3 i have sean in my home contry
rarest thing is probebly wild swan goose
 
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2- Mallard duck and Canadian goose :D

I just started counting in 2021 and haven't been to any zoos yet since I started keeping track. I've undoubtedly seen more, but for the sake of consistency all of my lists only go back to January 1st
 
The only ones I’ve not seen would be ones that aren’t kept in captivity outside their native area. So I’ve not seen Salvadori’s Duck, Masked Duck or Brazilian Merganser.
 
FBBird said:
The only ones I’ve not seen would be ones that aren’t kept in captivity outside their native area. So I’ve not seen Salvadori’s Duck, Masked Duck or Brazilian Merganser.
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What about Madagascar Pochard, Andaman Teal, Eaton’s Pintail, Chubut Steamer Duck? I presume you assume Crested Shelduck and Pink-headed Duck are extinct.
 
lintworm said:
I'm on 145 species, of which 75 in the wild and 140 in captivity. Given how widespread these are in European collections (Cologne alone holds more than 100 species...), many other will have seen loads as well. There are only a few species I have only seen in the wild: Torrent Duck, Falkland Steamer Duck, Lake Duck, Velvet Scoter and Kelp Goose.
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Torrent Ducks at Pensthorpe and Kelp Geese at Flamingo Gardens... both in England.
 
Tetzoo Quizzer said:
What about Madagascar Pochard, Andaman Teal, Eaton’s Pintail, Chubut Steamer Duck? I presume you assume Crested Shelduck and Pink-headed Duck are extinct.
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And none of those are kept outside their native area. I may have seen the last of WWT’s Kerguelen Pintail.
I live in hope that the last two aren’t extinct. Never seen Crested Shelduck, obvs. Handled a Pink-headed Duck skin....
 
I've been fortunate enough to see a total of 169 waterfowl taxa (and 143 species) across captive and wild settings - largely due to the fact I reached Blackbrook Zoo, and the extremely large collection of waterfowl held there, before it finally closed down.

In terms of wild waterfowl in particular, I have seen a total of 57 taxa and 50 species..... which I don't think is too bad going, given the fact my birdwatching experience has been limited to western and central Europe!

lintworm said:
There are only a few species I have only seen in the wild: Torrent Duck, Falkland Steamer Duck, Lake Duck, Velvet Scoter and Kelp Goose.
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I have to admit to mild surprise that you have never seen captive Lake Duck! I've seen all three of the latter species in captivity myself, but the Lake Duck isn't particularly uncommon as far as I know.
 
I'm on 148 species (going by IOC taxonomy and taking 'waterfowl' as including Magpie Goose but not screamers - knock one off for strictly Anatidae :D ).

As TLD says, Blackbrook was a massive help back when it was a thing..! Kelp Goose, Steller's Eider, loads of weird stuff. Between there and the WWT collections over the years the coverage on my list just within UK zoos is pretty good.

I've seen 53 of those 148 in the wild.

By my quick count-up, of the definitely-extant species I'm missing:

Chubut Steamer Duck
Torrent Duck
Salvadori's Teal
Eaton's Pintail
Andean Teal
Auckland Teal
Campbell Teal
Madagascan Pochard
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Stejneger's Scoter
Black Scoter
Brazilian Merganser
Masked Duck
Andean Duck
Blue-billed Duck
Musk Duck

So mostly classic 'difficult' species for Europeans. I need to get my scoter act together, it seems!

Some of the more obscure ducks at Blackbrook are among my priorities to get scanned on my current furtle through my old prints - in particular I've got Grey Teal down as a species I photographed there, whereas ZTL only notes the previously-conspecific Sunda Teal for Blackbrook, so that could well be a mislabel - I'm hoping I've got an image good enough that I can check for bulbous foreheads. :D
 
Maguari said:
By my quick count-up, of the definitely-extant species I'm missing:

Chubut Steamer Duck
Torrent Duck
Salvadori's Teal
Eaton's Pintail
Andean Teal
Auckland Teal
Campbell Teal
Madagascan Pochard
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Stejneger's Scoter
Black Scoter
Brazilian Merganser
Masked Duck
Andean Duck
Blue-billed Duck
Musk Duck

So mostly classic 'difficult' species for Europeans. I need to get my scoter act together, it seems!
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You *may* actually have White-winged Scoter - it is unclear whether the population formerly held at Walsrode were Velvet, White-winged or hybrids, given the fact they didn't look entirely right for the former species despite being labelled thus.

I am now trying to work out what the "odd ones out" at species level are between our two lists - Steller's Eider and Falkland Eider are definitely two, but that leaves two other species, given I didn't count Magpie Goose in my 143.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
You *may* actually have White-winged Scoter - it is unclear whether the population formerly held at Walsrode were Velvet, White-winged or hybrids, given the fact they didn't look entirely right for the former species despite being labelled thus.
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Yeah, I've kinda given up on those. I've seen wild Velvet so Velvet is safely listed either way.

TeaLovingDave said:
I am now trying to work out what the "odd ones out" at species level are between our two lists - Steller's Eider and Falkland Eider are definitely two, but that leaves two other species, given I didn't count Magpie Goose in my 143.
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Blue Duck for one?
 
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