Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"

We're still with the duck-faces. Today we have a Yellow-billed Duck, Anas undulata. The scientific name means 'wavy/waved duck', the application to this duck which I don't really understand, as nothing about it is wavy. It is a medium-sized duck, reaching about 1 kg/2.2 lbs in weight. Its body is greyish brown with a scaled pattern, resulting from the body and wing feathers having light edges. Like many other ducks, it has a shining blue-green panel, called a speculum, in its inner wing feathers, most easily seen when it flies. Its distinctive feature is its bright yellow bill. Even from a distance, the bill seems to glow and demand all your attention. Visible from closer up, are the two black patches, one at the tip of the bill and a 'saddle' on the top. No other wild duck in South Africa has a similarly bright yellow bill. Yellowbilled ducks also occur into East Africa. In the Horn of Africa, they might be confused with migrating Mallard ducks, which outside of the breeding season look similar, but their bills are not as bright yellow.

In South Africa, yellow-billed ducks are common to abundant. They're typically seen in pairs or small groups, but can form large flocks outside the breeding season. The species is most common in the high-lying interior regions or 'highveld', which originally was covered in extensive grassland, but today supports a huge human population which has significantly altered the landscape. The ducks have taken advantage of this, by populating the many, many artificial waterbodies farmers have created by damming rivers and streams. Elsewhere they also occur in fynbos (a shrubby vegetation type mainly of the southwestern Cape) and karoo (shrubby to grassy semi-desert) and on water in all other habitats. They prefers fresh, still or slow-flowing water, and are not seen at sea or in fast-flowing inland streams. In times of drought when their living rivers or lakes shrink or dry up, they'll fly out as far as 1000 km/625 miles to seek new living space. But most of the time they stick to a fixed territory.

In its lifestyle, this is a fairly typical duck. It paddles over the water surface, pecking up water plants from the surface or dipping its head into the water to take submerged parts. It also feeds on plants on the river banks and lake shores. It is mostly vegetarian, but will eat a small amount of insects and invertebrates also. It will even enter farmlands to feed on fallen grains. But it isn't considered an agricultural pest. It feeds largely in the morning or evening, spending most of the day just relaxing on the water. Like other ducks, they undergo a yearly molt after breeding, at which time they lose some of their wing feathers and spend three or four weeks flightless.

Yellowbilled ducks, at least in South Africa, can breed at any time of the year, so long as there's water and food available. They have a greater variety of displays than most other ducks, with seven main displays being recognized by ornithologists. Displays include chasing, preening, skilful flying, and synchronized swimming. Several males will perform to attract females, swimming, nodding their heads, and whistling; females will then throw their head backwards and quack. A female will choose her male and they'll stay together for the whole breeding season. The nest, built by the female, is typically in rank vegetation close to the water. It is just a shallow bowl lined with soft grass and leaves, often with vegetation arching over it to hide it from above. The female lays four to twelve eggs. She incubates alone, and when she leaves the nest to feed, she'll cover the eggs with some of the nest lining. The ducklings hatch open-eyed and able to swim with their mother. They're able to fly at the age of about 68 days. Their flight is swift and direct, sometimes quite high, and their wings make a whistling sound. The life expectancy is a bit over four years for drakes, three years for ducks.

While still abundant, this duck nevertheless does face some threats. They do suffer from water pollution, which is bad in some of its South African range. They're hunted by humans, but not at a very intensive level. Their greatest potential threat actually comes from some of their close duck relatives! Domestic ducks are descended from mallards, a species genetically close to the yellow-billed. They can breed and produce fertile offspring with our yellowbills. In many farm and urban regions, some of the domestic ducks have escaped into the wild. If these, as happened in other countries with introduced mallards or domestic ducks, interbreed with the wild yellow-billed ducks, it might lead to 'genetic pollution' in which the wild ducks lose some of their characteristic original features. But for the moment, it has not even been proven if significant interbreeding does exist. Thus for the while we can consider this species to be safe.

Willem

03.06.24 Front Page

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