Species of bird
Breeding male, Norway
The
long-tailed duck
(
Clangula hyemalis
) or
coween
,
[2]
formerly known as the
oldsquaw
, is a medium-sized
sea duck
that breeds in the tundra and taiga regions of the arctic and winters along the northern coastlines of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It is the only member of the
genus
Clangula
.
Taxonomy
[
edit
]
The long-tailed duck was
formally described
by the Swedish naturalist
Carl Linnaeus
in 1758 in the
tenth edition
of his
Systema Naturae
. He placed it with all the other ducks in the genus
Anas
and coined the
binomial name
Anas hyemalis
.
[3]
Linnaeus cited the English naturalist
George Edwards
's description and illustration of the "Long-tailed duck from Hudson's-Bay" that had been published in 1750 in the third volume of his
A Natural History of Uncommon Birds
.
[4]
This duck is now the only species placed in the genus
Clangula
; the genus was introduced in 1819 by the English zoologist
William Leach
to accommodate the long-tailed duck, in an appendix on species to
John Ross
's account of his voyage to look for the
Northwest Passage
.
[5]
[6]
[7]
The genus name
Clangula
is a diminutive of the
Latin
clangere
, meaning "to resound". The specific epithet
hyemalis
, also Latin, means "of winter".
[8]
The species is considered to be
monotypic
? no
subspecies
are recognised.
[7]
In
North American English
it is sometimes called
oldsquaw
, though this name has fallen out of favour. In 2000, the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) formally adopted the name
long-tailed duck
, in response to petitioning by a group of biologists who feared that the former name would be offensive to
Native American
tribes whose help was required for conservation efforts.
[a]
The AOU stated that "
political correctness
" alone was not sufficient to justify changing a long-standing name, but in this case decided to make the change because doing so would "conform with English usage in other parts of the world".
[10]
An undescribed
congener
is known from the
Middle Miocene
Sajovolgyi Formation
(Late
Badenian
, 13?12 Mya) of
Matrasz?l?s
,
Hungary
.
[11]
Distribution
[
edit
]
Long-tailed ducks breed on
tundra
across northern Eurasia (in Russian
Siberia
,
Kamchatka
, and
Karelia
, for example), the
Faroe Islands
, Finland, parts of southern Greenland, Iceland, Norway, as well as across northern North America (Alaska and northern Canada).
In winter, they are found on and near large bodies of seawater, such as the
Northern Pacific Ocean
, the
North Atlantic Ocean
,
Hudson Bay
and the American
Great Lakes
.
Description
[
edit
]
In flight
Adults have white underparts, though the rest of the
plumage
goes through a complex moulting process. The male has a long pointed tail (10 to 15 cm (3.9 to 5.9 in) long) and a dark grey
bill
crossed by a
pink
band. In winter, the male has a dark cheek patch on a mainly white head and neck, a dark breast and mostly white body. In summer, the male is dark on the head, neck and back with a white cheek patch. The female has a brown back and a relatively short pointed tail. In winter, the female's head and neck are white with a dark crown. In summer, the head is dark. Juveniles resemble adult females in autumn plumage, though with a lighter, less distinct cheek patch.
The males are vocal and have a musical yodelling call
ow, ow, owal-ow
.
Behaviour
[
edit
]
Egg,
Museum Wiesbaden
Mother and six ducklings in Iceland
Swimming on
Lake Ontario
Breeding
[
edit
]
Their breeding habitat is in
tundra
pools and marshes, but also along sea coasts and in large mountain lakes in the North Atlantic region, Alaska, northern Canada, northern Europe, and Russia. The
nest
is located on the ground near water; it is built using vegetation and lined with down. They are
migratory
and winter along the eastern and western coasts of North America, on the
Great Lakes
, coastal northern Europe and Asia, with stragglers to the
Black Sea
. The most important wintering area is the
Baltic Sea
, where a total of about 4.5 million gather. As of 2022 it has also been breeding in parts of Western Europe, such as on the
Marker Wadden
in the Netherlands.
Food and feeding
[
edit
]
The long-tailed duck is gregarious, forming large flocks in winter and during migration. They feed by diving for
mollusks
,
crustaceans
and some small
fish
. Although they usually feed close to the surface, they are capable of diving to depths of 60 m (200 ft). According to the Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds they can dive to 80 fathoms (146 metres or 480 feet). They use their wings, like velvet scoters, to dive, which gives them the ability to dive much deeper than other ducks.
Status
[
edit
]
The long-tailed duck is still hunted across a large part of its range. There has been a significant decline in the number of birds wintering in the Baltic Sea, partly due to their susceptibility to being trapped in
gillnets
. For these reasons the
International Union for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN) has categorised the long-tailed duck as
vulnerable
.
[1]
It is one of the species to which the
Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds
(AEWA) applies.
[14]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Though
squaw
originated as a word simply meaning "young woman" in the
Massachusett
and related
Algonquian languages
, it is now considered offensive by many Native Americans and is labelled as such in modern dictionaries.
[9]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
BirdLife International (2018).
"
Clangula hyemalis
"
.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
.
2018
: e.T22680427A132528200.
doi
:
10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22680427A132528200.en
. Retrieved
11 November
2021
.
- ^
"coween"
.
Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary
. Retrieved
20 January
2024
.
- ^
Linnaeus, Carl
(1758).
Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis
(in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 126.
- ^
Edwards, George
(1750).
A Natural History of Uncommon Birds
. Vol. Part III. London: Printed for the author at the College of Physicians. p. 156 Plates 156.
- ^
Leach, William Elford
(1819).
Ross, John
(ed.).
A Voyage of Discovery made under the orders of the Admiralty in her Majesty's ships Isabella and Alexander, for the purpose of exploring Baffin's Bay, and enquiring into the probability of a North-West passage
. London: John Murray. Appendix II: Zoological Memoranda, pp. 48?49.
- ^
Mayr, Ernst
; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1979).
Check-List of Birds of the World
. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 492.
- ^
a
b
Gill, Frank
; Donsker, David;
Rasmussen, Pamela
, eds. (July 2021).
"Screamers, ducks, geese & swans"
.
IOC World Bird List Version 11.2
. International Ornithologists' Union
. Retrieved
1 December
2021
.
- ^
Jobling, James A. (2010).
The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names
. London: Christopher Helm. pp.
110
,
197
.
ISBN
978-1-4081-2501-4
.
- ^
National Museum of the American Indian (2007).
Do All Indians Live in Tipis?
. New York: HarperCollins. p. 12.
ISBN
978-0-06-115301-3
.
- ^
American Ornithologists' Union (2000).
"Forty-second supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union
Check-list of North American Birds
"
.
The Auk
.
117
(3): 847?858.
doi
:
10.1642/0004-8038(2000)117[0847:fsstta]2.0.co;2
.
- ^
Gal, Erika; Hir, Janos; Kessler, Eugen; Kokay, Jozsef (1998?1999).
"Kozepso-miocen osmaradvanyok, a Matraszolos, Rakoczi-kapolna alatti utbevagasbol. I. A Matraszolos 1. lelohely"
[Middle Miocene fossils from the sections at the Rakoczi chapel at Matrasz?l?s. Locality Matraszolos I.]
(PDF)
.
Folia Historico Naturalia Musei Matraensis
(in Hungarian).
23
: 33?78. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 2011-07-21
. Retrieved
2007-02-06
.
- ^
Godfrey, W. Earl (1966).
The Birds of Canada
. Ottawa: National Museum of Canada. p. 72.
- ^
Sibley, David Allen
(2000).
The Sibley Guide to Birds
. New York: Knopf. p.
97
.
ISBN
0-679-45122-6
.
- ^
"Species"
. Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA)
. Retrieved
14 November
2021
.
External links
[
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]