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Maccoa Duck | Oxyura maccoa
Afrikaanse stekelstaart | Malvasía Maccoa
The Maccoa Duck is a compact diving duck with a stiff tail that is often cocked at an angle. The breeding male, with its chestnut body, black head and cobalt-blue bill, is unmistakable. It is the only stifftail of southern Africa and one of the most threatened ducks in the region.
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Voice
In display the male gives a low, purring, frog-like prrrr-prrrr, inflating the neck and raising the tail; otherwise almost silent.
Recording: Faansie Peacock — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
46–51 cm, with a large head, a short neck and a broad, slightly upturned bill. The breeding male has a glossy black head, a deep chestnut body and a bright cobalt-blue bill. Outside the breeding season the male resembles the female, though it sometimes keeps some chestnut. The female is dark brown with a pale stripe below the eye, a dark cheek stripe beneath it and a pale throat; the bill is dark grey. It sits low in the water, dives often and rarely flies; the wings are plain brown. Juveniles resemble the female.
Confusion species
The female Southern Pochard Netta erythrophthalma is slimmer, with a longer neck, a pale crescent behind the eye and a pale patch at the bill base, and a tail that lies flat on the water. White-Backed Duck Thalassornis leuconotus is buff and finely barred, with a round white spot at the bill and no pale stripe below the eye.
Habitat
Small to medium-sized, nutrient-rich freshwater dams and pans with deep open water and a fringe of reeds or bulrushes, also sewage ponds and flooded excavations. It dives for midge larvae, small molluscs and seeds from the bottom. The male holds a territory with several females; the nest is a cup-shaped structure in the reeds, just above the water.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Mainly on the South African highveld (Gauteng, Free State, Mpumalanga, North West) and in the Western Cape, and locally in the Eastern and Northern Cape, in Lesotho, on the central plateau of Namibia, in southern and eastern Botswana and in Zimbabwe. Beyond the region a separate population lives in East Africa, from Ethiopia to Tanzania.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the breeding season, especially from spring to late summer, search sewage ponds and farm dams with reed fringes on the highveld and around Cape Town. A displaying male with cocked tail and blue bill is visible from afar; females stay close to the reeds and dive when disturbed.
Conservation status
Endangered. Numbers are falling in both southern and eastern Africa. Key causes are drowning in gill nets, the loss and pollution of small wetlands, disturbance on dams and a low reproductive rate. In South Africa sewage works and protected dams form important strongholds.
Scientific name
Oxyura maccoa | (Eyton, 1838)
Eyton described the species in 1838 as Erismatura maccoa; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Oxyura was introduced in 1828 by Bonaparte. Oxyura is Greek, from oxys 'sharp' and oura 'tail', after the stiff tail feathers the bird can hold upright. maccoa is an alternative spelling of Macao (China); it is an erroneous toponym, as the species occurs only in Africa. The specimen the first description was based on came from South Africa (originally given in error as 'Indian Isles').