A dark brown with a distinctive, bright yellow bill with a black saddle. Blue-green speculum narrowly edged with white and grey underwings in flight. Pale feather edges give it a scaled appearance at close range.
Sexes virtually alike, but the male has a brighter speculum and all-black lower mandible. Scaling less distinct in juveniles.52 – 58 cm. 700 – 1.150 kg.
Common resident and nomad at freshwater lakes, ponds and flooded fields, as well as lagoons and estuaries. Often in flocks. Feeds mainly by dabbling or up-ending in shallow water.
Birds of Southern Africa (2020).
Hybridizes with introduced Mallards, with some hybrids resembling the yellow-billed duck, apart from their orange (and not blackish) legs. Occasionally hybridizes with red-billed teal.
Discover in Image
Courting the ladies
After the female actively solicit courtship by nod-swimming (Figure 1a), male dabbling ducks engage in three highly ritualized courtship displays (Lorenz, 1971) : the grunt-whistle (Figure 1b), the head-up-tail-up (with associated nod-swimming, Figure 1c) and the down-up (Figure 1d).
Compared to other duck species (Young, 1999), the male yellow-billed duck (Anas undulata) displayed slightly different courtship behaviours :
- During grunt-whistling, the males spend over twice the time in the 7th position to show off their long, thin, elegant neck.
- While performing the head-up-tail-up behaviour, the males quickly flash their speculum – a patch, often distinctly coloured, on the secondary wing feathers – in front of the female and spend longer time with their head and neck erect.
- The males show an elaborated down-up display, flashing their speculum as soon as they start tilting their wings forwards and keep it exposed until the end of the behaviour.
F*CK FISH 