Mandarin duck
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Mandarin ducks ( Aix galericulata ), pair |
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| Aix galericulata | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
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The Mandarin Duck ( Aix galericulata ) is an original in East Asia -based species from the family of ducks (Anatidae). Like the wood duck, it belongs to the genus Aix . In Europe there are isolated overgrown park populations that have emerged from captive refugees .
This type of duck has been very popular as an ornamental poultry for centuries. In their original range, however, the numbers of the mandarin duck are declining and are sometimes considered to be endangered. Due to the widespread use as ornamental poultry, the population is classified as safe overall.
Appearance
The mandarin duck is one of the "glossy ducks", whose name comes from the metallic sheen of their plumage. It is one of the medium-sized ducks and reaches a body length between 41 and 51 centimeters. The males weigh between 571 and 693 grams. The females are slightly lighter with a weight between 428 and 608 grams. In flight, the dark green mirror is visible in both sexes. However, the small and pointed tail is the most striking feature by which flying mandarin ducks can be recognized.
male
The magnificent, colorful drake is easy to recognize by its green-metallic forehead, the chestnut-brown "whiskers", the large white stripes over the eyes and the strikingly large orange-colored wing feathers that are set up like a sail. The head looks relatively large. The males have no color variability, but the headdress and sail feathers are designed differently. In plumage the drakes of mandarin duck have much in common with the plumage of the females. However, their chest and flanks are more clearly drawn yellow-brown. The back is a little darker and the beak is dull carmine red. Mandarin ducks begin to change plumage into resting plumage from mid-May. The small plumage moult takes place first. Then the control springs are moulted and in July the swing springs are dropped. The ducks are then unable to fly for about a month. The change to the magnificent dress begins at the end of August.
female
The gray-brown female is comparatively inconspicuous, has a white eye ring with an elongated eyeliner, a white chin and a spotted underside. The females are easy to confuse with the females of the wood duck . The females of the mandarin duck are generally smaller and, compared to female wood ducks, are more coarsely spotted on the flank and have a narrower white eye ring. The head is gray and not greenish. The wings also have a greenish mirror and white tips. In the female, too, the flank feathers are noticeably large and rounded. In the female, moulting begins after the end of breeding. The moult therefore takes place one month after that of the drake.
Appearance of the ducklings and ducks
The downy chicks of the mandarin duck are dark brown on the upper side and light brown to straw yellow on the underside. The wing sides are a little lighter and small, light colored areas can also be found on the back and the flanks. The headstock and the neck and nape are brown. The neck and the sides of the face, however, are yellow-brown. The breast is creamy yellow and to a lesser extent the chicks of the mandarin duck also have creamy yellow spots on the wing area. Starting from the eye, a dark rein runs to the neck and another, lighter one, but less noticeable, runs parallel below it.
In newly hatched downy chicks, the bill is dark brown-gray with a red-brown nail. The legs are dark gray in the front and olive gray on the sides. The webbed feet are dark gray. With increasing age, the beak initially changes color so that it is flesh-colored at the base of the beak and along the beak edges. After all, in adult mandarin ducks it is completely flesh-colored. The legs change color to olive yellow with age. The webbed feet remain dark. Young, not yet fully grown mandarin ducks have reddish-brown scaly plumage. The beak is reddish. In the case of young female birds, on the other hand, the breast plumage is gray-brown and has vertical dotted lines.
voice
Mandarin ducks are comparatively unreporting ducks. Occasionally a short and ascending pfruib can be heard from the male . He often calls it several times in a row. Males flying up give a shrill, whistling sound . The females, on the other hand, chuckle deeply and call käk or kett .
Distribution and existence
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The original home of the mandarin ducks are northeast China and the Amur region , where there are still around 1,000 pairs, and Japan with around 5,000 pairs. However, there it is seriously threatened. The population decline is mainly due to the destruction of their habitats.
They can now be found almost all over the world in parks and ornamental ponds, sometimes as refugees or as neozoons , for example in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , the Netherlands and southern England .
The animals living in England are now counted as a separate population, as they have been reproducing independently for a long time. In Western and Central Europe, there are short-term settlements as a result of prisoner refugees, while long-term establishment takes place very slowly. Most Central European populations consist of free-flying non-breeders and usually die out after a short time. This has also been the case with at least one naturalization attempt in Germany. The ornithologist Oskar Heinroth settled mandarin ducks in Berlin after 1900, which reproduced until at least 1920. There was a second successful settlement after 1975 in Brandenburg. There they reproduced until at least 1990. However, these mandarin ducks were exposed to high enemy pressure from martens, so that this naturalization was ultimately unsuccessful. Starting from free-flying individuals on the waters of the Berlin Zoo , however, a population has now formed in the region around Berlin that includes almost 500 females. The second starting point for a settlement was the zoo in Cottbus after 1990 , so that around 1998 there were around 80 to 120 breeding pairs in this region. A few couples live at Tegeler See in Berlin and in the Great Garden in Dresden. The first successful breeding of wild mandarin ducks took place in Switzerland in 1958, and it has been an annual breeding bird since 1980, although a slight increase and spread has been observed since the 1990s. Wild populations in Austria can be found in parks in Vienna or in the Vorarlberg Rhine delta, for example . The first brood was found in Belgium in 1987, and since then the number of breeding has risen to around 80 to 95 breeding pairs in Flanders alone by 2002 . The first broods occurred in the Netherlands as early as 1964 and meanwhile the breeding pair population for the year 2000 is between 200 and 260 pairs.
The European wild population now seems to exceed the Asian population with an estimated 7,000 breeding pairs.
In total, there are around 65,000 mandarin ducks, according to the IUCN . The entire population is considered safe.
Way of life
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The preferred habitat of the mandarin duck are inland waterways surrounded by forests. Mandarin ducks prefer oligotrophic lakes and ponds. They also settle on the middle and lower reaches of numerous rivers of the deciduous forest taiga. The mandarin duck breeds in tree hollows that are up to nine meters above the ground. In its natural environment it is very shy and mainly hides in the dense vegetation of rivers and lakes. It flies very skillfully through the branches and climbs around in the branches of the trees with its sharp claws .
Mandarin ducks are very insensitive to cold. Since they are also very local, they can be kept free in Central Europe. They look for food mainly in the countryside, where they also large seeds such as acorns and beechnuts swallow without chewing.
Reproduction
Mandarin ducks become sexually mature in the first year of life, but one-year-old female mandarin ducks have a lower reproductive rate than older females. The species leads a monogamous seasonal marriage, but re-breeding is not uncommon.
Pair formation among the mandarin ducks begins with the onset of winter. Many couples stay together for several years. The mandarin duck lays six to ten white eggs that are five centimeters tall in its tree cavity and incubates them in about 28 to 31 days. The female breeds alone. Thanks to their pointed claws and long tail feathers for support, the chicks can move just as safely in the branches as their parents and can reach the exit of the brood cavity in order to jump into the depths. The boys are also able to feed themselves very early on. However, they are usually warmed by the female parent bird in the first few nights. Young mandarin ducks can fly at around 40 to 45 days. They then leave their parents' breeding area and form swarms that settle in suitable waters. They are able to reproduce in their second year of life.
Mandarin duck and human
In China , the mandarin duck is a symbol of marital fidelity because of its distinctly monogamous way of life, as the ducks only change partners after a year. In the Qing Dynasty , it was also used as a badge for civil servants of the 7th rank. This species of duck was hunted relatively rarely. Their meat is not considered tasty.
The mandarin duck was introduced to Europe as early as 1745 because of its striking coloring. The first breeding succeeded in 1834.
The British lease area Weihaiwei had a pair of mandarin ducks as a flag badge from 1898 to 1930 .
Hybridization in captivity
The mandarin duck has long been said to be unable to produce viable offspring with other duck species because of a different number of chromosomes. In fact, there are always crossbreeds in captivity. Of the species with which crossings have been described, only one occurs in the natural range of the mandarin duck.
Crossbreeds with the following species are known in which viable chicks hatched:
- Wood duck ( Aix sponsa ): Like the mandarin duck, the wood duck belongs to the genus Aix and is accordingly closely related. It occurs naturally only in North America. Offspring from crossings with the wood duck were already described at the beginning of the 20th century.
- Laysanente ( Anas laysanensis ): The Laysanente belongs to the genus of actual ducks . It is an island endite found only on the island of Laysan , Hawaii . So far, only a single hybridization has been described in which two chicks hatched but were missing their eyes. One of the two chicks survived the first few days, but died as a young bird.
- Mallard ( Anas platyrhynchos ): The range of the two species overlaps in East Asia, but the hybrids described come from captivity. Reports of crossings in which the female parent bird was always a mallard have been available since 1890.
- Gadfly ( Anas strepera ): Only one successful rearing of young birds is known. In this case, the female parent bird was a mandarin duck.
- Redhead ( Aythya americana )
- Long- tailed duck ( Clangula hyemalis ): The long-tailed duck is one of the most numerous ducks in the arctic fauna. A type specimen of this cross is in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History .
It is noticeable that crossings of the mandarin duck with only six other species are known. For the closely related wood duck, however, crossings with 39 other duck species are known.
supporting documents
literature
- Hans-Günther Bauer, Einhard Bezzel and Wolfgang Fiedler (eds.): The compendium of birds in Central Europe: Everything about biology, endangerment and protection. Volume 1: Nonpasseriformes - non-sparrow birds. Aula-Verlag Wiebelsheim, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-89104-647-2 .
- John Gooders and Trevor Boyer: Ducks of Britain and the Northern Hemisphere , Dragon's World, Limpsfield, Surrey 1986, ISBN 1-85028-022-3
- Hartmut Kolbe; Die Entenvögel der Welt , Ulmer Verlag 1999, ISBN 3-8001-7442-1 .
- Eugene M McCarthy: Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006, ISBN 0-19-518323-1 .
Web links
- Aix galericulata in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 31 of 2009.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Aix galericulata in the Internet Bird Collection
- Feathers of the mandarin duck
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Handbook of the Birds of the World on Mandarin Duck , accessed on August 19, 2017
- ↑ a b Kolbe, p. 178
- ↑ Collin Harrison and Peter Castell: Field Guide Bird Nests, Eggs and Nestlings , HarperCollins Publisher, revised edition from 2002, ISBN 0-00-713039-2 , p. 70
- ↑ Hans-Heiner Bergmann; Hans-Wolfgang Helb; Sabine Baumann; The voices of the birds of Europe - 474 bird portraits with 914 calls and chants on 2,200 sonograms , Aula-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-89104-710-1 , p. 53.
- ↑ a b Kolbe, p. 179
- ↑ a b c Bauer et al., P. 82
- ↑ Jakob Reif: Bird watching in Saxony: Great Garden Dresden. Association of Saxon Ornithologists V., accessed on March 12, 2015 .
- ↑ a b Gooders and Boyer, p. 28
- ^ Flag of Weihaiwei on Flags of the World , accessed March 9, 2014
- ^ McCarthy: Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World . P. 67.
- ↑ a b c d McCarthy: Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World . P. 68.
- ^ McCarthy: Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World . P. 70.