Vorstman's guideThe birds of Canada, the United States and Greenland

All species › Waterfowl › Ducks, swans and geese

Ducks, swans and geese | Anatidae

Eenden, ganzen en zwanen | Patos, gansos y cisnes

The bill differs sharply in shape according to diet within the family: in dabbling ducks it strains water at the surface, in geese the edge is reshaped into a coarse serrated ridge for clipping grass, and in mergansers it is narrow and lined with backward-pointing serrations for gripping slippery fish. Diving ducks and mergansers hunt actively underwater, driven by the feet, while dabbling ducks stay at the surface and reach for food only by tipping upside down. Swans and geese typically form a lifelong pair bond in which both parents escort the young, whereas in most ducks the male leaves after mating, moults into a drab, inconspicuous eclipse plumage, and leaves the female to manage alone. Some species nest not on the ground but in a tree cavity, and their newly hatched chicks drop to the ground within a day to follow their parent.

Native species 48 species

Species that occur here by nature: breeding birds, winter visitors and passage migrants. They are arranged by genus, in the sequence of the list.

Whistling-ducks | Dendrocygninae

2 species

Long legs and a long neck give these ducks an upright, slightly hunched stance, quite unlike the low, horizontal build of most other ducks. Male and female look alike, and the male shares in building the nest and incubating the eggs. The underwing is mostly black, most visible in flight. They take their name from a whistling call given both in flight and at rest, and travel in flocks between daytime feeding grounds and a shared night roost. The group is found worldwide through the tropics and subtropics, including the Caribbean and South America on this continent.

Swans and geese | Anserinae

10 species

These are the largest members of the family: heavily built, with a long neck and a short, deep bill whose cutting edges are finely serrated for cropping grass. The legs are set well forward under the body, so they walk easily and graze in flocks on fields and pasture, and they rise from the water without a run, on a few powerful beats. Male and female wear the same plumage and there is no eclipse dress. Pairs stay together year after year and the young travel with their parents through the first winter, so a flock overhead is often a string of families: in lines or in a V, calling loudly, on slow deep wingbeats. In summer they shed all their flight feathers at once and are grounded for weeks.

Dabbling and diving ducks | Anatinae

20 species

This is the largest of the subgroups, and in the field it falls into two halves. The dabbling ducks stay at the surface: they sieve with a broad flat bill, finely combed with lamellae along the inner edge, and upend in the shallows with the tail in the air. Their legs sit near the middle of the body, so they walk well and spring straight up off the water, flashing the coloured wing patch called the speculum. The diving ducks go right under; their legs are set further back, they float low with the tail on the water and must patter along the surface before they are airborne. Males are boldly coloured, females mottled brown; the pair bond lasts one season, and the male slips into drab eclipse plumage before the eggs hatch.

Sea ducks and mergansers | Merginae

15 species

Heavy, thickset ducks of cold seas and fast rivers. They dive from the surface, usually with a small forward spring, and can stay down half a minute or more. The legs, set far back, push hard under water, but they make walking on land clumsy and upright, so the birds rest afloat rather than ashore. Getting airborne takes a run across the water, after which they go low and fast in long lines just above the waves. The bill follows the food: broad and wedge-shaped for crushing shellfish in the eiders and the scoters, long and narrow in the mergansers, with backward-pointing horny teeth and a hooked nail that hold a slippery fish. Males are sharply patterned in black and white, females brown with a paler throat.

Stiff-tailed ducks | Oxyurinae

1 species

Small, dumpy ducks with a thick neck, a large head and, in the male in spring, a strikingly broad sky-blue bill. The surest mark is the tail: narrow stiff feathers that lie flat on the water or are cocked straight up like a fan. The legs sit at the very rear of the body; they make for excellent diving and swimming, but on land the bird can hardly move and shuffles along on its belly. It therefore seldom leaves the water at all, and when alarmed it sinks quietly out of sight rather than flying. Take-off needs a long spattering run, and the flight is low and whirring on short wings. Food is taken by diving to the bottom of shallow lakes and straining the mud through the bill.

Introduced species 2 species

Species that do not occur here by nature but were brought in or escaped and have held on since. They follow the sequence of the list, not the genera.

Vagrants 16 species

Birds blown in from other continents, or from far outside their usual range.