Pacific black duck. Credit: 0ystercatcher

This is the most commonly seen duck on Booderee’s lakes and is very easy to identify. Just look for the dazzling, metallic teal-coloured patch on its secondary flight feathers. It is mostly mid-brown in colour, with a distinctive dark brown line through the eye as well as its shiny teal ‘mirror’.

Where

Visit lakes such as Windemere and McKenzie to see these ducks swimming about, feeding on insects, seeds and other vegetation above or below the water surface. You may also see them grazing in flocks near the water’s edge.

Feeding

This duck is mainly vegetarian, feeding on seeds of aquatic plants, supplemented by small crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic insects. Food is obtained by ‘dabbling’. Look for the bird plunging its head and neck underwater and upending, raising its rear end vertically out of the water.

Occasionally you’ll see it searching for food in damp grassy areas.

Breeding

The black ducks nest in down-lined tree hollows, grassy cups or reed beds.

Sounds

The female makes a loud quack quack quack sound while the male has a varied range of calls ranging from a soft hiss to a long quack.