They can range further inland during the nesting season and migration, however, and vagrant sightings are regularly recorded as well. These bulky birds have special glands to help them tolerate saltwater without dehydrating. Sea-duck species include the long-tailed duck, eiders, scoters, goldeneyes, and mergansers.
The stifftails are aptly named diving ducks with spiky stiff tails which they use as agile rudders while swimming. The tail may also be held angled or vertically as a breeding or territorial display, especially between competing males. These ducks often have colorful bills and compact bodies.
Stifftail species include the ruddy duck, masked duck, and blue-billed duck. Teals are dabbling ducks that often have brightly colored, distinctive plumage, including fantastic speculum coloration.
These ducks prefer to feed along the surface of the water as opposed to tipping up, but they will tip up occasionally. Teals are popular with waterfowl hunters, and they are carefully managed as game birds. Species include the cinnamon, green-winged, blue-winged, and silver teal.
These tropical ducks have long legs and necks, unlike typical compact duck proportions, and they may be mistaken for small geese. These birds are named for their shrill whistling calls, which can be heard for long distances and are often confused for other birds and animals.
Whistling-duck species include the black-bellied, fulvous, and white-faced whistling-ducks. Not a wild species, domestic ducks are instead escapees from farms, gardens, and zoos, and they are often kept as pets.
These ducks frequently congregate in mixed flocks on urban and suburban ponds. Their indistinct plumage, wide range of sizes, and mottled colors show a high degree of hybridization with other domestic and wild ducks. They include eiders common, spectacled, Steller's and king , scoters black, surf and white-winged , mergansers common, hooded and red-breasted and goldeneyes common and Barrow's goldeneyes , along with buffleheads, long-tailed ducks and the flamboyant harlequin ducks.
With eider feathers of pastel greens and blues set among a deep jet-black background, or the fanciful headdress of the snappy-looking hooded merganser, sea ducks are some of the most ornately colored of all waterfowl. As the name implies, sea ducks are adapted to life at sea. With most spending a considerable portion of the year along our coasts, the majority of these birds breed in northern areas such as the Canadian Arctic and Alaska.
King eiders will even remain in frigid waters during the winter, staying as far north as the open water will allow. This is possible because they have special adaptations for life in cold environments, such as thick fluffy down with supreme insulation properties and unusual veins and arteries in their legs that warm the cool blood before it is returned to the body.
Sea ducks are well adapted for life at sea. For instance, their bills are highly specialized—from the heavy, stout bills of eiders, which feed on marine mussels, to the long, narrow, serrated bills of mergansers, which are used for catching and eating fish.
As you might imagine, finding such food requires superb diving skills. Indeed, sea ducks are among the most accomplished divers of all waterfowl, with some reportedly diving to depths of feet. Perhaps the best way to understand how sea duck life history differs from that of other ducks is to contrast them with the familiar mallard. The common merganser tends to be more common on relatively unprotected, saltwater habitats while the hooded may frequent salt and freshwater marshes.
The elaborate courtship behavior of the common merganser is one of the sure signs of pelagic spring. While the drakes contort their bodies for competition, right whales often begin their migration out of Cape Cod Bay while humpback numbers begin to pick up on Stellwagen.
The only geese likely to be spotted on Stellwagen Bank are high flying flocks of Canada geese or snow geese. Snow geese are often overlooked by whale-watchers that have their eyes trained on the water. During the later trips of fall, take momentary glances to the sky: masses of mostly white snow geese may be seen.
Two brants wade the shallows for eel grass. The brant, Branta branta , is the only goose that is likely to be encountered in coastal environments with any regularity. Look for these small geese on the way out for a whale-watch in late fall. Much smaller than a Canada goose, these dainty birds are specialists upon eel grass, a productive flowering plant of shallow bays and sandy flats. After breeding on the tundra much farther north, many flocks spend the winter months grazing the shallows of protected bays and inlets.
In flight, they fly in less rigid formation than most other geese in our area. Entanglement Hotline: [email protected] 5 Holway Avenue Provincetown, MA Center for Coastal Studies. Marine Ducks and Geese. Male common eider. However, when ducks come out of the pool they are surprisingly dry as their feathers are nearly waterproof. Ducks have these special glands that allow them to drink salt water.
The glands excrete the excess salt thru openings at their bill. Ducks can go from drinking fresh water to salt water at any time. As long as they have plenty of fresh water to flush the excess salt from their system they are fine. Water is water and ducks can swim , so yes, ducks can swim in salt water. In fact, salt water has more bouyancy than fresh water.
Sea ducks make up 42 percent of all North American duck species. They typically eat large invertebrates, including clams, mussels, shrimp, snails and small crabs, when on their wintering grounds and some eat shellfish, fish eggs or fish.
Seagulls can drink both fresh and salt water. Wild ducks such as mallards do fly and can migrate long distances. Some domestic ducks bred for food are either too heavy to really fly or else have their wings clipped so they can 't. The bufflehead Bucephala albeola is a small sea duck of the genus Bucephala, the goldeneyes. This species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in as Anas albeola.
The common eider is a diving duck, and it eats mussels, clams, scallops, sea urchins, starfish, and crabs. Common eiders swallow their prey whole and then crush them with their gizzard! Common eiders feed in groups for up to 30 minutes at a time.
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