South Georgia pintail
| South Georgia pintail | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Anseriformes |
| Family: | Anatidae |
| Subfamily: | Anatinae |
| Genus: | Anas |
| Species: | A. georgica |
| Subspecies: | A. g. georgica |
| Trinomial name | |
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Anas georgica georgica Gmelin, 1789 |
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| Synonyms | |
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The South Georgia pintail (Anas georgica georgica), also misleadingly known as the South Georgian teal, is the nominate subspecies of the yellow-billed pintail (Anas georgica), a duck in the dabbling duck subfamily Anatinae. It is endemic to the large (3,756 km2) subantarctic island of South Georgia and its accompanying archipelago, and is a vagrant to the South Sandwich Islands. It was among the birds noted by James Cook in January 1775, on the occasion of the first recorded landing on South Georgia, and was formerly considered a full species.
The duck has long been recognised as a distinct taxon, with its affinities previously considered to be with the teals. Robert Cushman Murphy was the first to demonstrate that it is a pintail, its closest relatives the yellow-billed pintails of South America (now split as the Chilean pintail A. g. spinicauda and the extinct Niceforo's pintail A. g. niceforoi), though he retained it as a full species for its isolated distribution and its 16 (rather than 14) rectrices, or tail feathers. However, the number of retrices in the ducks is variable, with many mainland pintails also having 16 retrices and a few South Georgia pintails even having 18, and the three ducks are now usually lumped as the yellow-billed pintail.
The duck is a distinctive small, mottled, predominantly brown pintail. It is smaller and stockier than the remaining mainland subspecies (A. g. spinicauda), with more uniform and darker plumage. It has a reddish crown, light brown cheeks and throat, dark grey underwings and a pointed tail. The back, breast and flanks are scalloped with buff; the underparts are buffy white, mottled with brown. The bill is yellow with a blue and black line on the culmen and tip, and the feet are greenish-grey. The downy chick is dark brown with yellowish buff markings.
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Wikipedia