Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Anseriformes > Anatidae > Mergellus > Mergellus albellus

Mergellus albellus (Smew)

Synonyms: Mergullus albellus; Mergus albellus (homotypic); Mergus albellus albellus
Language: French

Wikipedia Abstract

The smew (Mergellus albellus) is a species of duck, and is the only living member of the genus Mergellus. Mergellus is a diminutive of Mergus and albellus is from Latin albus "white". This genus is closely related to Mergus and is sometimes included in it, though it might be closer to the goldeneyes (Bucephala). The smew has interbred with the common goldeneye (B. clangula). A seaduck fossil from the Middle Miocene shows that birds similar to smew existed up to 13 million years ago. The extant species dates back to the Pleistocene.
View Wikipedia Record: Mergellus albellus

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
2
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
18
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 5.98313
EDGE Score: 1.9435
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  1.422 lbs (645 g)
Birth Weight [2]  42 grams
Female Weight [5]  1.252 lbs (568 g)
Male Weight [5]  1.437 lbs (652 g)
Weight Dimorphism [5]  14.8 %
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Piscivore, Herbivore
Diet - Fish [3]  20 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  70 %
Diet - Plants [3]  10 %
Forages - Underwater [3]  100 %
Female Maturity [4]  1 year 12 months
Clutch Size [7]  8
Clutches / Year [6]  1
Incubation [6]  27 days
Maximum Longevity [9]  10 years
Migration [8]  Intracontinental
Snout to Vent Length [4]  16 inches (40 cm)
Wing Span [6]  24 inches (.62 m)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

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Important Bird Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Storchová, Lenka; Hořák, David (2018), Data from: Life-history characteristics of European birds, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n6k3n
♦ 2Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 5Cramp, S.; Simmons, K.E.L.; Perrins, C.M. 1977-1994. Handbook of the birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa Vols 1-9. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
♦ 6British Trust for Ornithology
♦ 7Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 8Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 9de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 10del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 11Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0