Falcated Duck
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
Family Members
- Fulvous Whistling-DuckDendrocygna bicolor
- Taiga Bean-GooseAnser fabalis
- Greater White-fronted GooseAnser albifrons
- Emperor GooseChen canagica
- Snow GooseChen caerulescens
- Ross's GooseChen rossii
- BrantBranta bernicla
- Cackling GooseBranta hutchinsii
- Canada GooseBranta canadensis
- Mute SwanCygnus olor
- Trumpeter SwanCygnus buccinator
- Tundra SwanCygnus columbianus
- Wood DuckAix sponsa
- GadwallAnas strepera
- Falcated DuckAnas falcata
- Eurasian WigeonAnas penelope
- American WigeonAnas americana
- American Black DuckAnas rubripes
- MallardAnas platyrhynchos
- Blue-winged TealAnas discors
- Cinnamon TealAnas cyanoptera
- Northern ShovelerAnas clypeata
- Northern PintailAnas acuta
- GarganeyAnas querquedula
- Baikal TealAnas formosa
- Green-winged TealAnas crecca
- CanvasbackAythya valisineria
- RedheadAythya americana
- Ring-necked DuckAythya collaris
- Tufted DuckAythya fuligula
- Greater ScaupAythya marila
- Lesser ScaupAythya affinis
- Steller's EiderPolysticta stelleri
- King EiderSomateria spectabilis
- Common EiderSomateria mollissima
- Harlequin DuckHistrionicus histrionicus
- Surf ScoterMelanitta perspicillata
- White-winged ScoterMelanitta fusca
- Black ScoterMelanitta nigra
- Long-tailed DuckClangula hyemalis
- BuffleheadBucephala albeola
- Common GoldeneyeBucephala clangula
- Barrow's GoldeneyeBucephala islandica
- SmewMergellus albellus
- Hooded MerganserLophodytes cucullatus
- Common MerganserMergus merganser
- Red-breasted MerganserMergus serrator
- Ruddy DuckOxyura jamaicensis