Tadorninae facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Tadorninae |
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| Common shelduck (Tadorna tadorna) | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Anseriformes |
| Family: | Anatidae |
| Subfamily: | Tadorninae Reichenbach, 1849 |
| Genera | |
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see article text |
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The Tadorninae are a special group of birds known as shelducks and sheldgeese. They belong to the Anatidae family, which includes all the ducks, geese, and swans you might know. These birds often look like a mix between a duck and a goose!
About Shelducks and Sheldgeese
Most shelducks and sheldgeese live in warm places around the world. You can find them in tropical areas or in the Southern Hemisphere. Only a couple of species, like the common shelduck and the ruddy shelduck, live and breed in cooler northern areas. There was also a crested shelduck that lived in the north, but it is now thought to be extinct.
Many of these birds have very unique and colorful feathers. However, it's not always easy to tell the males and females apart just by looking at their feathers. Sometimes they look exactly the same, even within the same group of birds!
How Scientists Group These Birds
Scientists study birds to understand how they are related. This is called systematics. For a long time, some birds now called shelducks were thought to be different types of ducks. But new studies, especially using DNA from the birds, have helped scientists group them more accurately.
These studies show that shelducks and sheldgeese are indeed somewhere between geese and dabbling ducks. Dabbling ducks are those that feed by tipping their heads into the water. It's like they are a bridge between these two groups!
Birds in the Shelduck and Sheldgeese Group
Here are some of the bird groups that scientists agree belong to the Tadorninae subfamily:
- Tadorna: These are the true shelducks. You can find them in Europe, Africa, and Australia. There are six different kinds of shelducks in this group.
- Radjah: This group includes the Radjah shelduck, which lives in Australia and New Guinea.
- Centrornis: This is the Madagascar sheldgoose. Sadly, this bird is prehistoric and no longer alive today.
- Alopochen: This group includes the famous Egyptian goose. There are also some extinct shelducks from Africa and Madagascar in this group.
- Neochen: This group has the Orinoco goose and the Andean goose, both found in South America.
- Chloephaga: These are the sheldgeese, with four different species living in South America.
- Hymenolaimus: This is the blue duck, found only in New Zealand. It used to be grouped with "perching ducks."
- Merganetta: This is the torrent duck, which lives in the Andes mountains of South America. It was also once called a "perching duck."
