The white-cheeked pintail (''Anas bahamensis''), also known as the Bahama pintail or summer duck, is a species of

dabbling duck The Anatinae are a subfamily of the family Anatidae ( swans, geese and ducks). Its surviving members are the dabbling ducks, which feed mainly at the surface rather than by diving. The other members of the Anatinae are the extinct moa-nalo, a yo ...

. It was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' under its current scientific name.

Distribution and habitat

It is found in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

, South America, and the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands (Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador ...

. It occurs on waters with some salinity, such as brackish lakes, estuaries and mangrove swamps. There are three subspecies: * ''A. b. bahamensis''—lesser Bahama pintail—in the Caribbean, and a vagrant to southern

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

* ''A. b. rubirostris''—greater Bahama pintail—in South America; it may be partly migratory, breeding in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and wintering further north. * ''A. b. galapagensis''—Galápagos pintail—in the Galápagos Islands

Description

Like many southern ducks, the sexes are similar. It is mainly brown with white cheeks and a red-based grey bill (young birds lack the pink). It cannot be confused with any other

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

in its range.

Behaviour

The white-cheeked pintail feeds on aquatic plants (such as ''

Ruppia ''Ruppia'', also known as the widgeonweeds, ditch grasses or widgeon grass, is the only extant genus in the family Ruppiaceae, with eight known species. These are aquatic plants widespread over much of the world. The genus name honours Heinrich ...

''), grass seeds, algaehttps://sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/sites/default/files/lifesciences/images/Anas%20bahamensis%20-%20White-cheeked%20Pintail.pdf and small creatures (such as

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s and small aquatic

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s) obtained by dabbling. The nest is on the ground under vegetation and near water.

Aviculture

It is popular in wildfowl collections, and escapees are frequently seen in a semi-wild condition in Europe. A

leucistic Leucism () is a wide variety of conditions that result in the partial loss of pigmentation in an animal—causing white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales, or cuticles, but not the eyes. It is occasionally spelled ' ...

(whitish) variant is known in aviculture as the silver Bahama pintail.

Gallery

File:Duck pato 005eue.jpg, File:white.cheeked.pintail.750pix.jpg, File:Anas bahamensis -Santa Cruz highlands.jpg, Adult on left with red at the base of its beak and a juvenile with an all black bill on the right File:Anasbahamensisberlin.jpg File:White-cheeked Pintail white morph RWD.jpg, Whitish variant File:Two ducks in the galapagos islands - santa cruz, ecuador.JPG, Two white-cheeked pintails on the Island of Santa Cruz in the

File:White-cheeked Pintail in pond.JPG, Taken in the

References

External links

White-cheeked pintail videos, photos, and sounds
on the Internet Bird Collection {{Taxonbar , from=Q800212

white-cheeked pintail The white-cheeked pintail (''Anas bahamensis''), also known as the Bahama pintail or summer duck, is a species of dabbling duck. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' under its current ...

Birds of the Caribbean Birds of Hispaniola Birds of the Dominican Republic Birds of Haiti Birds of South America Galápagos Islands coastal fauna