Waterfowl of North America, Revised Edition (2010) Papers in the Biological Sciences

University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln

2010

Waterfowl of North America: Frontmatter & Preface

Paul A. Johnsgard University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected]

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Johnsgard, Paul A., "Waterfowl of North America: Frontmatter & Preface" (2010). Waterfowl of North America, Revised Edition (2010). 2. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/biosciwaterfowlna/2

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“We cannot expect to learn from or communicate directly with waterfowl; they speak separate languages, hear different voices, know other sensory worlds. They transcend our own perceptions, make mockery of our national boundaries, ignore our flyway concepts. They have their own innate maps, calendars, and compasses, each older and more remarkable than our own. We can only delight in their flying skills, marvel at their regular and precise movements across our continent, take example from their persistence in the face of repeated disaster. They are a micro- cosm of nature, of violent death and abundant rebirth, of untrammeled beauty and instinctive grace. We should be content to ask no more of them than that they simply exist, and we can hope for no more than that our children might know and enjoy them as we do.” —from Part I

Bird lovers and sportsmen will treasure and learn from every page of this information-packed, up-to-date, and lavishly illustrated volume, written by one of the world’s foremost authorities on waterfowl. Professional biologists, ornithologists, conservationists, and others concerned with the breeding and management of waterfowl will find it the most comprehensive and authoritative compendium of data in print for all of the nearly sixty species of ducks, geese, and swans known to breed in North America.

For each species the distribution (with range maps for all breeding species), weightsand measurements, information on identification in the hand and in the field, criteria for determining age and sex, and North American subspecies are given. Each species description also includes detailed accounts of preferred habitat, food, ecology, migratory movements, sociality, age at maturity, nest location, clutch size, incubation and fledging periods, pairing and flocking behavior, and copulatory, nesting, brooding, and postbreeding behavior. Preliminary chapters deal with migration and distribution patterns, hunting and recreational values, and an introduction to waterfowl biology in general.

Illustrated with over sixty detailed waterfowl line drawings, thirty-one color photographs, and ninety-six black and white photographs, this is the definitive work on its subject and a treasury of information for biologists, ornithologists, waterfowl hunters, and bird lovers. Paul A. Johnsgard, emeritus professor of biological sciences at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, is author of Handbook of Wa- terfowl Behavior; Ducks, Geese and Swans of the World; Cranes of the World; Grouse and Quails of North America; Waterfowl: Their Biology and Natural History, and more than forty other books. Waterfowl of North America Labrador Ducks. Watercolor By Sir Peter Scott UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA–LINCOLN LIBRARIES

LINCOLN, NEBRASKA ● 2010 The publishers and the author gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the International Wild Waterfowl Association.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Johnsgard, Paul A. Waterfowl of North America.

Bibliography Includes index. 1. Waterfowl-North America. I. Title. QL696.A5J62 598.2’97 Dedicated to JEAN DELACOUR AND PETER SCOTT Whose Work Has Provided the Foundation for My Own Efforts

Black Duck 244 Blue-winged Teal 270 Bahama Pintail 254 Cinnamon Teal 281 Pintail 257 Northern Shoveler 290 Garganey 268

Pochards (Tribe Aythyini) 301 Canvasback 302 Tufted Duck 336 Redhead 313 Greater Scaup 339 Ring-necked Duck 325 Lesser Scaup 349

Sea Ducks (Tribe Mergini) 361 Common Eider 362 White-winged Scoter 439 King Eider 374 Bufflehead 451 Spectacled Eider 383 Barrow Goldeneye 462 Steller Eider 392 Common Goldeneye 472 Labrador Duck 401 Hooded Merganser 484 Harlequin Duck 403 Smew 493 Oldsquaw 414 Red-breasted Merganser 496 Black Scoter 424 Common Merganser Surf Scoter 432 (Goosander) 506

Stiff-tailed Ducks (Tribe Oxyurini) 519 Masked Duck 520 Ruddy Duck 529

Name Derivations 543 Sources 546 Index 571

TABLES

1. Habitat preferences of North American waterfowl 16 2. Winter survey population distribution, by flyways, 1966-1969 19 3. Summary of Mexican winter waterfowl surveys 20 4. Estimated average annual harvests, Canada and the United States 24 5. Summary of Audubon Christmas counts, 1954-1962 28

BREEDING AND WINTERING DISTRIBUTION MAPS

The page numbers for the breeding and wintering distribution maps may be found in the index under the species' vernacular names.

VIII CONTENTS Plates

Frontispiece: Labrador Ducks. Watercolor by SIR PETER SCOTT Following page 50 Trumpeter Swan Canvasback Lesser Snow Goose (Blue Phase) Redhead Lesser Canada Goose Ring-necked Duck Atlantic Brant Greater Scaup Barnacle Goose King Eider Wood Duck Steller Eider American Wigeon Oldsquaw Gadwall Harlequin Duck Green-winged Teal Surf Scoter Mexican Mallard Bufflehead Florida Mallard Barrow Goldeneye Northern Pintail Common Goldeneye Blue-winged Teal Hooded Merganser Cinnamon Teal Red-breasted Merganser Northern Shoveler Common Merganser Ruddy Duck

Following page 210 Fulvous Whistling Duck White-fronted Goose Cuban Whistling Duck Lesser Snow Goose Black-bellied Whistling Duck Ross Goose Mute Swan Emperor Goose Trumpeter Swan Canada Goose Whistling Swan Barnacle Goose

IX Brant Goose European Wigeon Muscovy Duck American Wigeon Wood Duck Falcated Duck

Following page 338 Gadwall Cinnamon Teal Baikal Teal Northern Shoveler American Green-winged Teal Canvasback Common Mallard Redhead Mexican Mallard Ring-necked Duck Florida Mallard Tufted Duck Northern Pintail Greater Scaup Bahama Pintail Lesser Scaup Garganey Common Eider Blue-winged Teal King Eider

Following page 450 Spectacled Eider Barrow Goldeneye Steller Eider Common Goldeneye Oldsquaw Smew Harlequin Duck Hooded Merganser Black Scoter Red-breasted Merganser Surf Scoter Common Merganser White-winged Scoter Masked Duck Bufflehead Ruddy Duck

X PLATES Preface

It was with a considerable degree of hesitation that, during the winter of 1970-71, I sat down and contemplated the scope and structure of a possible book on the waterfowl of North America. On my bookshelf behind me were copies of A. C. Bent's Life Histories of North American Wild Fowl, F. H. Kortright's The Ducks, Geese, and Swans of North America, and Jean Dela cour's The Waterfowl of the World. My task, as I saw it, was to try to develop a book that might be useful to the greatest number of people without seriously overlapping with any of these great works. Bent's classic volumes had admir ably summarized the early "life history" information. Kortright's book has been the standard reference for waterfowl illustrations and plumage descrip tions for the past thirty years. Delacour's multivolume monograph obviously commanded sufficient authority to render unnecessary detailed consideration of taxonomic questions. My own earlier books on waterfowl behavior (Handbook of Waterfowl Behavior) and waterfowl biology (Waterfowl: Their Biology and Natural History) made superfluous additional descriptions of sexual behavior patterns or general comparative reviews of ecology and breeding biology. What remained to be done, I finally decided, was to provide an up-to-date series of accounts dealing with the ecology and reproductive biology of every waterfowl species presently known to breed on the North American continent. In this way, the recent field studies of three separate groups, the wildlife biolo gists, ecologists, and ethologists, might be integrated. I hoped to make the book understandable to nonprofessionals, but still retain sufficient specific in formation as to make it a useful reference for students and professional water fowl biologists. Secondly, information on both field and in-hand identification of all waterfowl species likely to be encountered in North America seemed to me to be equally important, especially in view of the increasing requirements for hunters to recognize quite precisely what they shoot or attempt to shoot. Also, practical means of accurate identification of waterfowl, and the further determination of waterfowl as to age and sex, are of foremost importance to

XI biologists concerned with waterfowl management. These two goals thus be came the nucleus for the development of the book. Illustrative materials in the form of distribution maps and photographs of live birds were added to supple ment written descriptions of ranges, plumages, and identification criteria. Ex cept where otherwise indicated all photographs and drawings are mine. The text of the book was subsequently prepared in two sections. First, the preliminary materials were developed for each species, including ranges, sub species, weights, measurements, and identification aids. For this section it was usually expedient or necessary to rely on a variety of previous publications. Delacour's Waterfowl of the World was the primary basis for subspecies cri teria and provided the major source of wing and culmen measurements. Like wise, the criteria for specific and generic limits used here are largely those of Delacour and of my own earlier publications. Where such usages differ sig nificantly from those of the American Ornithologists' Union (1957 and sup plement in Auk, 90: 411-419, 1973), these differences are noted. A further deviation from the general practice of the A.O.U. is the use of distinctive ver nacular names for subspecies, but whenever possible these names have been devised by the addition of an appropriate adjective to the basic vernacular name of the species. The separate accounts of the distribution, ecology, and behavior of all the species known to breed in North America were written next. I tried to avoid as far as possible the earlier literature that has been repeatedly sum marized by Bent, Kortright, and Delacour, and instead to enlphasize informa tion having possible application in the conservation and management of each species. Space limitations forced the adoption of a uniform format and a rather terse writing style, with little or no consideration for each species' pos sible esthetic values or its relative sporting importance. Thus, when the species accounts had been completed the text still seemed vaguely unsatisfying and somehow unfinished. The three preliminary chapters were then envisioned as a means of providing a cohesive overview and introduction to the individual species accounts and as an expression of my personal evaluation of the sig nificance of our waterfowl resource to twentieth-century America. It is impossible to acknowledge adequately all the sources of encourage ment and assistance I have had during the course of gathering information and assembling materials for this book. The most significant of these is per haps the John S. Guggenheim Foundation, whose fellowship supported me through the winter, spring, and summer of 1971, when a substantial part of the initial draft was formulated. The University of Nebraska Research Coun cil provided me with a leave of absence during that year and also with a sum mer faculty fellowship during 1972. Travel expenses associated with fieldwork

xii PREFACE and manuscript preparation during the summer of 1972 were provided by a grant from the Penrose fund of the American Philosophical Society. The National Science Foundation had earlier (1964-68) provided me with a re search grant that allowed several years of study and summer fieldwork that would have otherwise been impossible to accomplish. Two years of study at the Wildfowl Trust, in England, financed by fellowships from the National Science Foundation (1959) and the U.S. Public Health Service (1960), were an equally important background component. The pleasant associations I had there with the Wildfowl Trust's scientific staff greatly influenced me, and its unsurpassed collection of live waterfowl gave me a unique research oppor tunity at a critical stage in my professional development. I would be remiss not to mention a few people who have individually assisted me in various ways during the preparation of this book. In particular, Sir Peter Scott most kindly provided the marvelous Labrador duck painting, which fully captures the essence of that beautiful but extinct bird. It is espe cially appropriate that Scott, who has personally done so much to prevent the extinction of such species as the Hawaiian goose, has contributed this inter pretation of a species that no one will ever again see in life. Although I have used my own photographs whenever possible, in a few instances I have resorted to those taken by others. For their use, I would like to thank Burr Betts, Dirk Hagemeyer, and George Moffett. I was also gra ciously allowed to photograph waterfowl in a number of private collections, including those of Betty Carnes, Winston Guest, Jack Kiracofe, William Lem burg, William Macy, Christopher Marler, "Mickey" Ollson, Charles Pilling, and George Searles, to all of whom I again express my appreciation. Unpub lished information on certain species was provided by Robert Alison, Dale Crider, Dennis Crouch, Robert Elgas, Dirk Hagemeyer, John Lynch, Calvin Lensink, and George Schildman. lowe a special debt of thanks to the Inter national Wild Waterfowl Association, for a substantial subsidy toward the printing costs associated with this book. No doubt the greatest help and the strongest guiding influence of all were provided by my parents, who from my childhood encouraged me to develop my interests in birds as well as in nature in general. Through the books they gave me I was introduced to the writings of H. A. Hochbaum, F. H. Kort right, and Aldo Leopold, all of whom thus transmitted to me their own love of wildlife and enabled me to determine the kind of life I wanted to shape for myself. In a real sense, this present book is the fulfillment of a long-standing self-promise that one day, with a contribution of my own, I would try to repay these persons and the countless others who have directed their lives toward the understanding and preservation of our North American waterfowl.

PREFACE xiii