Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Anseriformes > Anatidae > Thalassornis > Thalassornis leuconotus

Thalassornis leuconotus (White-backed Duck)

Wikipedia Abstract

The white-backed duck (Thalassornis leuconotus) is a waterbird of the family Anatidae. It is distinct from all other ducks, but most closely related to the whistling ducks in the subfamily Dendrocygninae, though also showing some similarities to the stiff-tailed ducks in the subfamily Oxyurinae. It is the only member of the genus Thalassornis. White-backed ducks live in southern Africa, especially between Senegal and Chad in the west and Ethiopia and South Africa in the east. Their habitat consists of lakes, ponds, swamps and marshes where they are well camouflaged against predators.
View Wikipedia Record: Thalassornis leuconotus

Infraspecies

Thalassornis leuconotus insularis (Madagascar white-backed duck)
Thalassornis leuconotus leuconotus (African white-backed duck)

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
11
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
37
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 22.7433
EDGE Score: 3.1673
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  1.559 lbs (707 g)
Birth Weight [2]  84 grams
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Herbivore
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  10 %
Diet - Plants [3]  90 %
Forages - Underwater [3]  100 %
Clutch Size [5]  8
Clutches / Year [1]  1
Fledging [1]  55 days
Incubation [4]  32 days
Maximum Longevity [4]  12 years
Snout to Vent Length [1]  15 inches (39 cm)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Important Bird Areas

Name Location  IBA Criteria   Website   Climate   Land Use 
Grassland Biosphere Reserve (proposed) South Africa A1, A2, A3, A4i, A4ii, A4iii
Nyl river flood-plain South Africa A1, A4i, A4iii
Okavango Delta Botswana A1, A3, A4i, A4ii, A4iii
Richards Bay Game Reserve South Africa A1, A4i, A4iii
Sumbu National Park and Tondwa GMA Zambia  

Biodiversity Hotspots

Prey / Diet

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Apatemon congolensis <Unverified Name>[7]

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan 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
♦ 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
♦ 4del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 5A comparative study of egg mass and clutch size in the Anseriformes, Jordi Figuerola and Andy J. Green, J Ornithol (2006) 147: 57–68
♦ 6Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 7Gibson, 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