Wide Duck Duck

Waterfowl wide-toed duck of duck family – a widespread species that lives on Eurasian territory and in North America.

Duckweed

External characteristic

Traditionally, the large-toed duck is classified as a river bird, however, some ornithologists distinguish it in a separate genus. This bird is an object of fishing and sporting hunting.

With its size, the wide-nosed duck is slightly larger than the duck species of teal, but does not reach the size of pintail. Her small growth in comparison with other relatives can be noted in the photo. In length, it grows up to 52 cm, in the wingspan – up to 82 cm. The weight of a wide-toed duck does not exceed 1 kg, starting with a mass of 0.47 kg. By its appearance, the feathered representative of the shirokonosok resembles a mallard, however, it is distinguished by a large size with a long beak (in males – up to 70 cm, in females – up to 65 cm), which looks disproportionate to the overall size.

The color of females and males is significantly different, and this is clearly demonstrated by the photo:

• the drake, when the mating season begins, dresses in a bright plumage, its black head and cervical part begin to cast green metal; a blue-green shiny hue appears on the back, above and under the tail, the sides of the body are covered with white stripes, and the fly wings acquire a bright chestnut color with a sparkling green mirror, the goiter and chest are white, the eye iris is drained yellow or red orange hue;
• the female is predominantly brown in color with streaks and painted in bright upper feathers on the wings, the color of the beak is olive and the eye iris is walnut.

Paws and males and the females are painted bright Orange color. In summer, the drake becomes similar to a female, distinguished only by the upper wings of a bluish-blue color and a brighter mirror.

Geography of residence

A widespread species lives on both hemispheres. In the southern European region, duck nests in Spain, Corsica and France. In the northeast, these birds can be seen on the islands of Britain along the coast in the north Atlantic. They live in southern Norway, in Sweden, flocks of shirokonosok are recorded in Finland and Iceland.

Shirokonoska is also present in Russia, preferring to settle in the region of Karelia, the Ob river delta, it can be seen near the Siberian Yenisei and Taimyr.

The center of Europe is covered by this species starting from Austria and Serbia, passes through the Czech Republic and Slovakia with Romania, ends in the Baltic States and Ukraine. The southern border of the habitat runs along the Black Sea Turkish coast and Transcaucasia.

Flocks of shirokonosok are noted in the western part of North America, and in the north the habitat ends in the Alaska region.

Lifestyle

The duckweed is classified as a silent bird; it rarely shows its voice. Most often, sounds are heard from males. They are two-syllable “kho-kho,” pronounced muffledly and smacked. With restless behavior, the sounds made by males are repeated many times and merge.

For ducks of wide-legged species, open water bodies in the steppe or forest-steppe are a favorite habitat. Flocks there are the most numerous. They settle in shallow water near forest belts, on open lakes, or in wide river valleys.

A broad-nosed duck is quite difficult to see in the tundra. There, it settles only in the north-eastern European part.

Shirokonoska prefers to nest near water bodies where vegetation grows, avoiding forest rivers and lakes, to which the forest strip is tight, it is important for her to have a large open space.

In winter, the migratory duck moves to shallow bays and seashores in those areas where tides are noted. A feathered bird can nest in a marsh area with fresh or salt water.

Diet and reproduction

Reproduction

Maturity of shirokonosets comes to one-year-old age, but many birds come to reproduction only after reaching 2-3 years. The mating season falls in mid-spring (April) – early summer (June), but couples form even before arrival at the nesting sites.

Females build nests 20-27 cm wide in the form of a hole in the ground to a depth of 10 cm They cover them with last year’s grass and down, preferring treeless islands, meadows or humps for this. to escape from the attack of predators.

Egg-laying shirokonosok totals but from 10 to 12 eggs that hatch for 23-25 ​​days.

Food

Shirokonoski are carnivorous ducks, so in the diet they should have small crustaceans and mollusks, insects with larvae, which are filtered by a bird through the plates on the beak using the tongue. Sometimes shirokonoski feed on fish larvae and snails. In addition to insects and fish, the aquatic vegetation menu includes shirokonosok.They collect food from the bottom, because in many photos you can see a duck with his head lowered into the water column so that only the tail sticks out on the surface. Often it spins in one place and creates a water funnel around itself.