Anyone
fortunate enough to have observed a male Musk Duck at close quarters,
particularly while displaying, will most likely agree this is one very strange
duck. In the Pizzey & Knight Birds of Australia guide Pizzey starts his
notes on the Musk Duck with “Male larger. A very strange duck.”
The Musk
Duck is a diving duck and spends most of its time on and under the water – it even
sleeps on water. It is supremely adapted to a life on the water, catches its
prey by diving and per Michael Morcombe’s guide, “occasionally emerges onto
land, where it waddles clumsily”.
Recently we
encountered a lone male Musk Duck on Lake Vancouver near Albany in WA. The small
lake was a deep fresh water marsh, well vegetated around the margins, a habitat
preferred by Musk Duck, though they can be found in a diverse range of habitats
including salt water - estuaries, lakes and even in the sea off sea-beaches.
There were
no other water birds on Lake Vancouver – from my initial scan of the lake I
thought there were no birds until the Musk Duck emerged from a dive.
At first
the bird was very busy diving for food when it spent long periods submerged and
only briefly appeared on the surface. We observed the bird from a metal clad
timber hide built out over the water and fringing vegetation. I was hoping the
bird might come closer for photos and had reached the point where I thought
this was unlikely. Then a lone Pacific Black Duck flew in and landed across the
lake from us. The Musk Duck immediately made its way to the Black Duck which
departed with what seemed indignant calls as the aggressive Musk Duck saw it
off with a very impressive and loud splash of water.
We decided
to wait and observe a little longer. The Musk Duck then swam along the far
shore and disappeared into a small embayment in the dense fringing reeds. After
several minutes, we thought that was it for our session observing the duck,
however he then emerged again and swam back towards the hide, and for us most
interestingly the bird’s behaviour had changed from foraging to
displaying.
The male in
display fans its stiff pin-like tail feathers forwards over its back and
expands the undertail-coverts like a powderpuff and with the bill raised and
bill-flap expanded the bird throws loud foot-splashes while making a k-plonk
like call that is far carrying. In the hide we at first thought the k-plonk
call was coming from a frog under the hide. There were two species of frog
calling. However, watching the Musk Duck closely, it was clear he was making
the k-plonk sound which was like a very loud drop of water in a deep well. The
sound was perfectly the same each time making us think the bird must be making
the sound with its throat and not by splashing with its feet which you would
think would result in a variable sound. It was hard to believe the sound was
coming from the duck some 80 metres or so away and not from right under the
hide, it was so loud and clear (1).
In addition
to the k-plonk sound and dramatic foot splashes the Musk Duck male in display
also utters grunts and a shrill far-carrying whistle.
As the Musk
Duck displayed it moved across the lake past the hide to a position where we
were looking directly into the late afternoon sun. It then returned as it continued
displaying to the small embayment again. A selection of photos shows some of
the display.
Please click on photos
to enlarge.
The male Musk Duck emerged from the reedy embayment. |
He begins to display with tail spread and raised forward over his back and head raised while calling. |
He swims forward between displays. |
Another display. |
After alternately swimming forward and displaying he reaches a point where we are looking directly into the sun. |
While a silhouette, this photo shows the fanned pin tail feathers well. |
This cropped version of the photo above shows there are 22 pin feathers – P&K field guide states there are 28? Perhaps there are some smaller pin feathers not visible in this photo? |
When in stationary display the males slowly rotate as they call and foot-splash. |
The tail is pressed forward onto the back in this photo. |
I was hoping to capture the foot-splash however this is a very rapid action and hard to snap.
In display the male seems to raise his throat and neck feathers to form a ruff like collar. |
In this photo the feet are visible however I still missed the splash.
Finally as the bird reached the embayment where he would disappear I managed to capture a somewhat fuzzy shot that clearly shows the feet well splayed during a foot-splash. |
As we
walked away from the lake the Musk Duck was still in the reeds where he disappeared
and still making the k-plonk call though not the foot-splashes. We speculated
as we walked back to the car that a female was on a nest in the reeds of the
small embayment. The breeding conditions (recent good rains) and time of year
were right and the male’s behaviour suggested there was a female present – why
show aggression to the Black Duck and invest time and energy in an elaborate display
if there was no female present?
On our
arrival, the lake looked to be empty of birds - how lucky were we to have ended
up with a great experience observing a male Musk Duck displaying?
(1) If you have the P&K and Morcombe
smart phone Apps then both are worth checking for the recorded male Musk Duck
display calls and foot splash however the k-plonk call is only on the Morcombe
App. I have used the k-plonk term in this post to describe the call we heard
because this is the term and spelling used in field guides. It is a challenge
to adequately describe bird calls in words!