Anatidae
Pacific Black Duck
Anas superciliosa
The Quiet Billabong
- Length
- 55 cm
- Wingspan
- 88 cm
- Family
- Anatidae
Identification
A dark brown duck with a beautifully striped face: a pale buff eyebrow and cheek cut by a dark line through the eye. The speculum is glossed green-purple. Sexes are similar. Hybridisation with introduced mallards muddies some suburban birds — look for the clean face pattern.
Distinctive marks
- Dark body, pale striped face
- Dark line through the eye
- Green-purple speculum
- Orange-brown legs
- Even, unhurried dabbling
Behaviour & ecology
Dabblers of lakes, farm dams, and quiet estuarine corners. They up-end rather than dive, rest on banks in pairs, and fly with a quick, whistling wingbeat when flushed.
Voice
The female quacks in a descending series; the male has a quieter, rasping note.
On the Peninsula
Wetlands, golf-course lakes, and sheltered inlets across the Peninsula.
Season
Year-round. Numbers swell on dams after inland dry.
Diet
Seeds, aquatic plants, and small invertebrates taken from the surface.
Conservation
Secure, though genetic swamping by mallards is a long concern.
Lore & resonance
A black duck on still water is the wetland keeping its own counsel. The face-stripes are a mask for a bird that prefers not to be a spectacle.
If you would attract them
They need water that is not endlessly chased by dogs, and banks with a little cover. Bread is a harm, not a kindness.
