Radjah Shelduck, a new duck around the lakes
Posted by admin on 3 October 07, Wednesday
Contributed by KC Tsang & Tang Hung Bun
On 9th June 2006, Tang Hung Bun captured an image of a duck perching atop a street lamp along Bukit Timah Road, near Raffles Town Club.
The white duck has a brown back and wing tips and a rusty band across its breast. Its legs, feet, bill and eyes are pinkish.
This duck is new to Singapore. KC Tsang helped identify it as Radjah Shelduck (Tadorna radjah), also known as Burdekin Duck, from the Northern Australian coast and parts of Indonesia.
For at least a year, if not longer, the duck can be seen in the Symphony and Eco Lakes of the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Apparently it has been wandering around the island.
Introduced as a free-ranging bird? Escapee?
Incidentally, the Radjah Shelduck is listed as a protected bird in all states of Australia.
Images by Tang (duck on street lamp) and KC (others).
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Categories: Exotics
Comment by Haniman
Made Wednesday, 3 of October , 2007 at 11:40 am
I have a sneaky feeling that its from the Zoo or Bird Park.They do have a couple of free ranging ducks and some of these are not clipped so when the flight feathers grew they gladly took off. Some have become ‘localised’ resident.They fly away but come back to roost at Zoo or Bird Park..
Comment by Veery
Made Wednesday, 3 of October , 2007 at 11:03 pm
Interesting! We have cases of escapees such as Black Swans, Muscovy Ducks, and flamingoes, but who knows? Birds travel so much and they are so unpredictable!
Comment by budak
Made Thursday, 4 of October , 2007 at 2:52 pm
Saw them at the Eco-Lake (NIE side of the Gardens) last year. Guess they are exploring the area more.
http://budak.blogs.com/the_annotated_budak/2006/12/ducks.html
Comment by Lham
Made Friday, 5 of October , 2007 at 4:54 pm
Seen these ducks recently (a few months back).
They were usually in pairs and wading around in the canal during low tide or sitting still on the concrete pipe “bridge”.
