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Patagonian Crested Duck
Lophonetta specularioides

DESCRIPTION:
Patagonian Crested Duck
Pato Crestón
Lophonetta specularioides
Length: 600mm. Sexes alike. Bill dark bluish grey; iris orange; crown, ocular area, nape and crest earth-brown; forehead, lores, malar and auricular region and hind neck brownish whitish finely and profusely spotted dark brown; chin, throat and foreneck white; breast and belly cinnamon buff with reddish cinnamon barring; under tail and uppertail coverts earth-brown; tail velvety black; flanks earth-brown with cinnamon buff feathers halfway to tip; upper back and scapulars earth-brown with base of feathers cinnamon buff; tertiaries earth-brown; wing coverts earth-brown; primaries dark brown; secondaries purple with green metallic highlights and subterminal posterior band velvety black with white terminal band, these remiges forming the speculum; legs dark grey.
Female: similar to male but slightly smaller, tail and occipital crest shorter. Juvenile: similar to adults but overall paler coloration. This species is easily recognised by its diagnostic occipital crest and long tail, also the broad speculum ending in a white band.
Habitat and behaviour: the Patagonian Crested Duck lives in pairs or groups which can be sometimes very large. This species frequents preferably the seashore and saline ponds but also freshwater rivers and streams; however, it is scarce or occasional in lakes, ponds and rivers in forested areas. It feeds by dabbling; its staple diet consists of insects and their larvae, crustaceans, small molluscs and algae. Wary and skittish, very territorial in breeding grounds, aggressively driving off intruders; nest is placed on the ground near the coast, hidden among shrubbery, up to six cream-coloured eggs are laid. 
Range: from Neuquén and Río Negro to Tierra del Fuego and Islas Malvinas, islands and coastal islets off Patagonia to southern Río Negro; in winter reaches the south of Buenos Aires. These regions are for the nominate race Lophonetta specularoides specularioides; the race Lophonetta specularoides alticola occurs in the high Andean ponds in the northwest of Argentina.
Illustrated Handbook of the Birds of Patagonia
Kindless: Kovacs Family
 
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Photographs: Mariano Diez Peña


Birding Patagonia • Birdwatcing in Bariloche, Patagonia, Argentina and Chile.
All Rights reserved. Reproduction of photographs is forbidden without permission from the authors.
Photographs on the website: Mariano Diez Peña