White-winged Duck (Asarcornis scutulata)

Found singly or in pairs, the white-winged duck is active mainly at dusk and dawn, feeding on seeds, vegetation, fish and other animal matter, as well as on aquatic snails, spiders and insects. It undergoes an annual moult in September or October and is flightless for a fortnight, moving into more densely forested swamps for protection from predators. Breeding occurs during the late dry season, when the female lays up to 16 eggs in a nest constructed in a tree hole, fork or hollow between three and twelve metres above the ground. Incubation lasts 33 days, and hatching is timed with the start of the heavy seasonal rainfall. The chicks disperse after 14 weeks of parental care (4).

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