Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The avian family Anatidae, commonly called waterfowl, comprise the ducks, geese, and swans. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) recognizes these 174 Anatidae species distributed among 53 genera, 32 of which have only one species.
Alternatively, [1] the Anatinae are considered to include most "ducks", and the dabbling ducks form a tribe Anatini within these. The classification as presented here more appropriately reflects the remaining uncertainty about the interrelationships of the major lineages of Anatidae (waterfowl). [2]
Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which includes over 170 species of waterfowl, among them the ducks, geese, and swans. Most modern species in the ...
The North American Waterfowl Management Plan for redheads is 760,000 North American birds. [13] The population size has increased in the past few decades to well over 1.4 million birds. [6] Redheads make up 2% of North America's duck population and only 1% of its harvested ducks. [13]
Fowl are birds belonging to one of two biological orders, namely the gamefowl or landfowl (Galliformes) and the waterfowl (Anseriformes).Anatomical and molecular similarities suggest these two groups are close evolutionary relatives; together, they form the fowl clade which is scientifically known as Galloanserae or Galloanseres (initially termed Galloanseri) (Latin gallus ("rooster") + ānser ...
While shortcomings certainly occur in Livezey's analysis, [citation needed] mtDNA is an unreliable source for phylogenetic information in many waterfowl (especially dabbling ducks) due to their ability to produce fertile hybrids, [2] in rare cases possibly even beyond the level of genus (see for example the "Barbary duck").
A 1696 sighting by William de Vlaming of "four-footed animals" in the reeds of Amsterdam Island may have been of this duck, as there are no native land mammals on the island. [3] No naturalist visited Amsterdam Island until 1874, by which time it was infested with rats from visiting ships, and the duck was extinct. [4]
As the "perching ducks" are a paraphyletic group, [2] they need to be placed elsewhere. The initially assumed relationship with the dabbling duck subfamily Anatinae [ citation needed ] has been questioned, and it appears they form a lineage in an ancient Gondwanan radiation of waterfowl, within which they are of unclear affinities. [ 3 ]