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www.mdavid.com.au |
Pacific Black DucksAnas superciliosa |
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The Pacific Black Duck will be familiar to people all over Australia |
In the wild these ducks are easily spooked by people and it's really hard to get near them. However in the city they will often learn to associate people with food and they won't be so nervous. |
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They breed when conditions are good, which means the times when there's lots of food and water. What do they look like?The photos on this page describe these birds better than I can. Being a common duck throughout Australia chances are most Aussies have seen some. There are some ducks which look pretty similar, though. So I'll show a couple of those (below). I suppose the notable features of Pacific Blacks are the mainly dark brown feathers which are each edged in light brown, and the distinctive stripe running through the eye. And something I've been dying to say: Looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck. |
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| The Grey Teal looks like a Pacific Black Duck, except it lacks the Pacific Blacks' stripe across the eye | And here's another relative of the Pacific Blacks.He's called an Australasian Shoveller (Anas rhynchotis). Note the impressive beak |
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| Heavy rains and abundant plant growth in early 2008 encouraged the breeding of several Pacific Black Ducks in Sydney's Centennial Park | The ducklings are surprisingly strong swimmers |
What they eatThey might pick up the odd small water critter but these ducks are mainly seed eaters, a feature which has not endeared them to rice farmers. However it seems that these ducks don't eat much of the farmers' crop. |
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