Family:
The falcated duck is a medium-sized dabbling duck named after the long black and white sickle-shaped tertial feathers that extend over its back and rump on the male. It has a white, grey, and black body in a finely scaled pattern. The head is dark with a green gloss and drooping nape, a white throat, and black bill with a small white spot on the base.
The female is similar to a wigeon with brown plumage and a grey bill. The head is grey and the breast and flanks are tawny with black V-shaped markings.
Falcated ducks are often kept in captivity so birds seen outside their normal range may be escapees from private collections. They can be found in flocks with wigeon.
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Falcated ducks eat mainly aquatic plants, seeds, and roots, but will also take snails, insects, small fish, and frogs. They feed mainly at the surface but sometimes tip upend and occasionally dive. They also feed by grazing on land.
Falcated ducks breed in Asia from south east Siberia and Mongolia to northern Japan. They migrate south for winter to southern Japan, eastern China, Myanmar and northern India. They can be found in lakes, ponds, wetlands, marshes and rivers often in wooden areas. In winter they can also be found in estuaries and flooded fields.
