Comb Duck (Sarkidiornis sylvicola) | Photos and ID

LCLeast ConcernPlants

WetlandCavity nestHuge · 2.6 kg

Comb Duck (Sarkidiornis sylvicola), photo 4 — Photo: Ruth Gutiérrez Oliveros · CC0

Comb Duck (Sarkidiornis sylvicola), photo 5 — Photo: Audrey Whitlock · CC BY 4.0

Comb Duck (Sarkidiornis sylvicola), photo 6 — Photo: Audrey Whitlock · CC BY 4.0

Comb Duck (Sarkidiornis sylvicola), photo 7 — Photo: Frank Thomas Sautter · CC0

Comb Duck (Sarkidiornis sylvicola), photo 8 — Photo: Reuber Brandão · CC BY 4.0

ID tip

It is one of the largest species of duck. Length can range from 56 to 76 cm (22 to 30 in), wingspan ranges from 116 to 145 cm (46 to 57 in) and weight from 1.03 to 2.9 kg (2.3 to 6.4 lb). Adults have a white head freckled with dark spots, and a pure white neck and underparts. The upperparts are glossy blue-black upperparts, with bluish and greenish iridescence especially prominent on the secondaries (lower arm feathers). The male is much larger than the female, and has a large black knob on the bill.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Comb Duck

One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is January, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Comb Duck

Regular rangeRare visitor

The map shades 11 countries with regular records, and 3 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Peru Ecuador Brazil Argentina Colombia Bolivia Paraguay Venezuela Trinidad & Tobago Caribbean Netherlands Curaçao

Recorded as a rare visitor in Chile, Spain, Uruguay.

About the Comb Duck

The comb duck or American comb duck, is an unusual duck found in tropical wetlands in continental South America south to the Paraguay River region in eastern Paraguay, southeastern Brazil and extreme northeastern Argentina, and as a vagrant on Trinidad.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Knob-billed DuckSarkidiornis melanotosThis common species is unmistakable.

Side by side: Comb Duck vs Knob-billed Duck

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