Aix (genus)
| Aix | ||||||||||||
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male mandarin duck ( Aix galericulata ) and male wood duck ( Aix sponsa ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Aix | ||||||||||||
| Boie , 1828 |
Aix is a genus of swimming ducks ( Anatini ).
In the past, this genus was assigned, together with Cairina , to its own, albeit very heterogeneous, tribe of the " glossy ducks " ( Cairinini ).
Only two species are included in the genus Aix :
- Mandarin duck ( Aix galericulata )
- Wood Duck ( Aix sponsa )
The mandarin duck comes from East Asia, the wood duck from North America. Despite the great geographical distance between the two distribution areas, there are very close family ties.
Both species do not occur naturally in Europe. Since the drakes are among the most colorful ducks and are therefore very popular with ornamental bird keepers, there are now some escaped and released pairs ( captive refugees ).
literature
- BC Livezey: A phylogenetic analysis of recent anseriform genera using morphological characters. Auk 103, 1986, pp. 737-754.
- S. Magde, H. Burn: Water fowl. Paul Parey, Berlin / Hamburg 1989.
- Friedrich Boie: Comments on several new species of birds . In: Isis von Oken . tape 21 , 1828, pp. 312-329 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
Web links
Commons : Aix - collection of images, videos and audio files
