#cairina

A muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) and ducklings swimming near Pompano Beach, Florida, USA

Common Name: Muscovy Duck Species: Cairina moschata

Description: A dark-colored duck with green and blue wings, and bare skin around the eyes with red wattles Motto: Waddling the line between wild and domestic.

Conservation: Least Concern Range: Coasts of Mexico and Central America, extending into South America, down to northern Argentina and Uruguay; introduced to Florida, Texas, and the UK Habitat: Tropical wetlands, coastal lagoons, and lowland marshes; varied for introduced populations, but usually in areas near water

Food: Stems, seeds, grasses, aquatic plants and leaves, small fish and reptiles, invertebrates (especially termites) Breeding Info: Polygamous, although males are territorial and aggressive; single-brooders with mostly maternal care and loose paternal contact after hatching; nest-box and tree-hollow users when nesting, with a clutch of 8 - 15 white eggs that hatch precocial young Sound: ...

Ornithologist's Notes: Is the Muscovy duck actually distributed in Florida? Well, yes and no. Fun fact, first off, there isn't a lot of actual work done on wild Muscovy Duck in their South American range. Most papers you'll see focus on the domesticated variety, which is also the version of the duck introduced outside of its range. But even then, do feral ducks count as a wild species in parts of its range? Maybe. In central and southern Florida, the species has populations in the thousands, distributing far outside of domestic settlements, and enmeshing themselves within wild environments. It's not necessarily invasive, and it fits within existing niches with little overlap, except for one closely-related species I'll get to in the next entry. Also, quick note, those white patches vary wildly in the domestic variety, where they're basically just restricted to those big white wing patches in the wild populations. Is that from introgression from domestic mallards, or a result of hybridization? Maybe. Is that because of the fixing of a deleterious copy of the MYOT and MB gene pairing that controls melanization, alongside differential expression throughout the feathers dependent on some mystery of genomic structure? Very well could be? Are there any papers on that comparison? Not yet. We'll see, though.

Life List Notes: Does this count as a life-list bird? I think so! To be clear, I saw these guys for the first time in central Florida (Orlando), and while they were around a human settlement, they weren't kept in a domestic setting, and seemed like a wild (or feral) flock that had arrived to the water-dominated resort independently, rather than being brought there and fed there. What's more, they weren't heavily domesticated, and at least appeared to be pure Muscovy Duck, rather than hybrids with Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) or other domesticated duck species. Plus, Florida birders seem to think that these count for life-lists, since they're independently distributed and established. So, does it count? We're gonna say yes! And now, for the next one, we move on to a species that definitely counts for the life-list...even if it is a really common duck to see. Also, we're in ducks now! Excited, I love ducks.

Previous: TRSW

Muscovy Duck (Cairina moschata), female and male, family Anatidae, order Anseriformes, found in South TX, Mexico, Central and South America

These ducks have been domesticated, and widely introduced to waterways around the world.

The wild form is pictured here. Domestic forms often have more curdled red skin around the face, more white coloration, and have heavier, rounder bodies.

A muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) in Florida, USA

A male muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) stretches its wings in Poconé, Mato Grosso, Brazil