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Mandarin Duck

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Mandarin duck
Two small ducks stood on some concrete. The duck on the left is highly colourful, with a white belly, pink beak, tawny brown tail feathers, and a dark green head stripe above two white eye areas. The duck on the right is less colourful, with feathers ranging from tawny brown to grey, a small white eye stripe and just a few dark green feathers under the wing.
Male and female mandarin ducks at Martin Mere, UK
Scientific classificationedit
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Anseriformes
Family: Anatidae
Genus: Aix
Species:
A. galericulata
Binomial name
Aix galericulata
Aix galericulata dis.PNG
The native range of the mandarin duck, and parts of its introduced range where it is established breeding

  Breeding
  Native resident
  Migrant
  Winter visitor
  Introduced resident
Synonyms
Anas galericulata Linnaeus, 1758

The mandarin duck (Aix galericulata) is a perching duck species native to the East Palearctic. It is medium-sized, at 41–49 cm (16–19 in) long with a 65–75 cm (26–30 in) wingspan. It is closely related to the North American wood duck, the only other member of the genus Aix. ‘Aix’ is an Ancient Greek word which was used by Aristotle to refer to an unknown diving bird, and ‘galericulata’ is the Latin for a wig, derived from galerum, a cap or bonnet.[2] Outside of its native range, the mandarin duck has a large introduced population in the British Isles and Western Europe, with additional smaller introductions in North America.