Male
  • Male
  • Male
  • Male

Hover over to view. Click to enlarge.

Falcated Duck

Anas falcata
Anseriformes
Anatidae
Accidental visitor. Washington Bird Records Committee review list species.

    General Description

    Once known as the Falcated Teal, this East Asian native is about the size of the Gadwall and the American Wigeon, but with a heavier-bodied, larger-headed appearance. The spectacular male has an iridescent green- and coppery-toned head, white throat, mostly gray body, and long, sickle-shaped tertial feathers curving downward over the rump and tail. The female is similar to the female wigeon, but plainer, with a black bill.

    The Falcated Duck breeds from southern Siberia to northeast China, Korea, and northern Japan, wintering to southern Japan, east and south China, and Vietnam. It is a rare vagrant to the Aleutian Islands and rarer still along the Pacific Coast of North America. Washington has three records, all from near coasts: January 1979 from the Naselle River (Pacific County), July 1993 at Sequim (Clallam County), and February–March 2002 at Samish Island (Skagit County). In British Columbia, a Falcated Duck returned to Tofino on Vancouver Island for three winters in a row, to 1996. Another bird has wintered at Coburg, Oregon, for four years through 2007.

    Revised June 2007