On 8 December Dan Tankersley found an ABA Code-4 Falcated Duck (Anas falcata), formerly called Facated Teal, at the Colusa NWR, California. The refuge is located between Williams and the town of Colusa about 70 miles northwest of Sacramento.
Falcated Duck breeds in northeastern Asia on freshwater lakes, rivers, ponds, lagoons, often in wooded country (Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 1). They winter in their breeding areas south to northern regions of Southeast Asia. South of Alaska, where it is intermittent in spring in the central and western Aleutian Islands, Falcated Duck has been at Tofino, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where it spent three winters, 1994-1996. One was collected at Naselle River, Washington (1979); one was photographed and it returned to Coburg, Oregon, for four winters, 2004-2007. In California, there was one photographed at Upper Newport Bay in the winter of 1969, and one was inland at Honey Lake Wildlife Area, Lassen County, in early spring 2002, returning 2 January-11 March 2003 (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.). There also have been reports of Falcated Duck from Ohio, Ontario, and Maryland, these birds of unknown origin.
They are hunted in large numbers in China for food and for feathers.
Natural Asian duck occurrences such as this give more credence to the Evergreen, Colorado, Baikal teal.
Posted by: Karl Stecher | December 09, 2011 at 08:00 AM
I was up there the last couple of days and was lucky enough to see this rare sighting. I managed to get a couple of mediocre images. Here is one I posted on my blog:
http://jacquelinedeely.blogspot.com/2011/12/you-learn-something-new-every-day.html
Posted by: Jacqueline Deely | December 16, 2011 at 04:16 PM
I photographed a few pictures Of the Falcated Duck in Colusa NWR.
He sure is a hit!
Posted by: Tina | January 03, 2012 at 09:20 PM