Anas superciliosa
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days >90%
The Pacific black duck (Anas superciliosa), commonly known as the PBD, is a dabbling duck found in much of Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and many islands in the southwestern Pacific, reaching to the Caroline Islands in the north and French Polynesia in the east. It is usually called the grey duck in New Zealand, where it is also known by its Māori name, pārera.
The Pacific black duck was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other ducks, geese and swans in the genus Anas and coined the binomial name Anas superciliosa. Gmelin based his description on the "Supercilious duck" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. The naturalist Joseph Banks had provided Latham with a water-colour drawing of the duck by Georg Forster who had accompanied James Cook on his second voyage to the Pacific Ocean. His picture was drawn at Dusky Sound, a fiord on the southwest corner of New Zealand. This picture is the holotype for the species and is now held by the Natural History... Wikipedia →
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sedgwick County Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Slimbridge Wetland Centre | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 3 | Parc zoologique et forestier Michel-Corbasson | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 4 | Mansfield Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 5 | East Coast Natureworld | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 6 | Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 7 | Gladys Porter Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Adelaide Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 9 | Willowbank Wildlife Reserve | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 10 | Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 11 | Kiwi Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 12 | Ipswich Nature Centre | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 13 | Cologne Zoo Aquarium | 🇩🇪 Germany |
Likely
About 60% of wildlife watchers report a Pacific Black Duck sighting in Melbourne on a given day, based on 23,860 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 9th most-seen of the 236 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October to March
In those months about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Pacific Black Duck in Melbourne on a given day, against about 60% in April to September, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Pacific Black Duck sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 6
Of the 6 cities where we can rate Pacific Black Duck sightings, Melbourne ranks 2nd at about 60%. The best odds are in Perth (Australia, about 70%).
Same genus: Anas
The closest relatives of the Pacific Black Duck that you can see in Melbourne (genus Anas, Mallards, Pintails, and Allies) are Chestnut Teal (about 50%) and Grey Teal (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pacific Black Duck is recorded against all the birds logged in Melbourne (23,860 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
