#anatinae

[best-bird-tournament]

Dabbling duck (Anatinae) subfamily runoff

Which is the best bird?

Ruddy duck

Mallard

Smew

King eider

Voting ended onOct 7, 2025

[saritawolf]

American Wigeon (male) (Mareca americana) - (c) SaritaWolf - please do not repost

[alonglistofbirds]

[2755/11080] Crested duck - Lophonetta specularioides

Order: Anseriformes Family: Anatidae (ducks, geese and swans) Subfamily: Anatinae

Photo credit: George Armistead via Macaulay Library

[uwmspeccoll]

A Dabbler’s Feathursday

A couple of weeks ago we brought a few of the diving ducks that we often see here in Wisconsin. This week we present a few of the Anatinae or dabbling ducks that are common to our neck of the woods, marshes, rivers, and lakes. Dabblers are ducks that dip their heads and front parts of their body under the water to access food near the surface. This is opposed to divers that will submerge their whole body and dive for food. Once again, our examples come from Rex Brasher’s massive, limited-edition, 12-volume set Birds and Trees of North America, self-published in Kent, Connecticut, between 1929 and 1932, containing thousands of hand-colored reproductions of Brasher’s paintings!

From top to bottom, they are:

1.) Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), two details and full print: Perhaps our most common North American duck, Mallards are aptly described by Rex Brasher as "The tamest, hardiest, most social and important Duck in the world -- a full biography in one sentence. Mallards will eat nearly every kind of food. . . . Courageous, self-reliant and altogether capable . . . not the least of their virtues is that they eat mosquito larva -- May their tribe never decrease!” 2.) Blue-winged Teal (Spatula discors), detail and full print: One of the smaller dabblers, Blue-winged Teals of both sexes are distinguished by their sky-blue wing coverts. They are among our favorites to see at Wisconsin's Horicon Marsh. 3.) Northern Shoveler (Spatula clypeata), two details and full print: These fellows are unmistakable due to their large spatulate bill, equipped with well-developed lamellae – small, comb-like structures on the edge of the bill that act like sieves as the bird swings its bill from side to side to strain food from the water. 4.) Wood Duck (Aix sponsa), full print and detail: Wood Ducks are Wisconsin’s most colorful waterfowl species. The drake is decorated with green, blue, red, purple, white, and orange hues. Aptly named, the Wood Duck has specialized foot adaptations for perching and they are are “cavity” nesters, preferring to nest in tree cavities left by tree disease, rot, squirrels, etc.

Find out more about Rex Brasher’s work, and/or view other posts from this set.

View more Feathursday posts.

[animalids]

Common goldeneye (Bucephala clangula)

Photo by Marlin Harms

[dendroica]

Mallard (by me)

[that-crazy-scorpio-man]

Possible gadwall.  I’m not sure.  It’s a green-winged teal.

[oceanodroma-blog1]

The male Wood Ducks are out of eclipse plumage

Burnaby Lake, BC