Grey Duck for Bird of the Year

We are coming to the end of the competition & I just thought that I would provide a timely reminder on how bird competitions were historically undertaken in New Zealand. Back in the day it was all about who shot the most that won bragging rights. Fortunately this has largely changed for the better, although the nationally critically endangered Parera/Grey Duck can still be shot ! (Note to DOC, Fish & Game, Forest & Bird -please actually do something about changing that). Please check the captions for some enlightening information. 😉

It's now easier to send Grey Duck for Bird of the Year a message.

Thanks to the many Parera/Grey Duck supporters out there who are always looking out for, photographing & bird atlassing our beautiful bird. The attached photos are from one of our young supporters Lucy Dean & are of a pair of Parera/Grey Duck at Long Bay is Auckland. These photos show well many of the features of our Parera/Grey Duck including the grey bill, strong facial strips, edged feathers, green speculum & olive feet. FYI: The feet are not Mallard orange ! 🙂

Voting for Bird of the Year 2021 has opened & we hope that you will vote for the Parera/Grey Duck as your first choice bird. You have five votes that you can make for the various bird species that are in need of our conservation efforts. https://www.birdoftheyear.org.nz/grey-duck

Bird of the Year 2021 Forest & Bird’s Bird of the Year recognises our unique birds and with each vote you give them a voice.

Time for a few Parera/Grey Duck family photographs from Scott Brooks. The ducklings are cute, as you would expect from good looking parents. Unlike the aggressive Mallard Duck the drake Grey Duck often helps taking care of the ducklings. Unlike the Mallard, Grey Ducks are not sexually dimorphic, as both the male & female look the same in what is called monomorphism.

Parera/Grey Duck & the NZ Bird Atlas
Just a reminder that if you see a pure Parera/Grey Ducks, please load your sighting into the New Zealand Bird Atlas. This fantastic citizen science project looks to map the distribution of all of Aotearoa's birds, with this information used to guide their conservation. Your sightings of Parera/Grey Duck are therefore vitally important & can be used to identify their strongholds & preferred habitats.

Grey Duck for Bird of the Year have a duck coalition with Team Paradise Shelduck. Please supports both of our birds as they share the same misfortune of being hunted. The deliberate hunting of the nationally critically endangered Parera/Grey Duck is of course an insult to intelligence !

Team Paradise Shelduck is officially making 2 new coalitions!

Duck Coalition: A coalition for ducks (obviously), with Grey Duck and Paradise Shelduck already have already joined.

Underrated Birds Mega Coalition: A large coalition for birds that placed low in the last 2 BOTYs or are generally regarded by us as underrated.

If you want to join any of these then please comment.

Team Takapu - Bird of the Year 2021
Grey Duck for Bird of the Year
Fernbird for Bird of the Year 2020
Tarāpunga/Red-Billed Gull - Bird of the Year
Kotuku-Great Egret-White Heron
Hākoakoa/Arctic Skua for Bird of the Year 2020
Vote Black-fronted Tern for Bird Of The Year
Tarapuka/Black-billed Gull BOTY 2021
The Royal Spoonbill/Kōtuku Ngutupapa for Bird of the Year
Whio/Blue Duck For Bird Of The Year 2020

We are back in action helping our beautiful, but critically nationally endangered Parera/Grey Duck. I am Ian McLean, the campaign manager for the Parera/Grey Duck as Bird of the Year 2021. I have always been interested in the beauty & diversity of birds, although for much of my life I was more into playing social football & birding was kind of my secret hobby. A lot has changed & as the Auckland Regional Representative for Birds New Zealand I now take an active role in promoting the study & enjoyment of birds. My mission is to make you more aware of the Parera/Grey Duck & its need for our conservation efforts. 🙂

Know your Enemy #2: the bad behaviour of the drake Mallard Duck

Male Mallard Ducks are the gang rapists of the duck world, as you will note from the following video link. This unpleasant behavior is the reason why they threaten both the native Parera/Grey Duck and the endemic Pateke Brown Teal with hybridization to extinction. Male Mallard Ducks will try to copulate with any other species of female duck that they can jump on. As a result of the Mallard Duck we are losing our biodiversity. We may lose to extinction at least one native and one endemic species of waterfowl and end up with a motley collect of mongrel hybrids ducks. Be warned that this video is unpleasant to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQs1cw25dqw&t=19s

Mallard ducks mate. MALLARDS ATTACK A MALLARD HEN This was hard to watch this poor hen. The Mallard men all wanted to mate with her! I broke it up after filming this. The hen flew away.... she was relieved! ...

Know your Enemy #1: the Mallard Duck

We have surrendered our biodiversity in promoting an invasive introduced pest, the northern hemisphere Mallard Duck to please game hunters. We have known about the hybridization of Mallards on Parera/Grey Ducks since 1914, but Acclimatisation Societies and individuals persisted with a most determined effort to introduce Mallards with over 30,000 being released over a period of 80 years and during this we have taken no action to protect of native Parera/Grey Duck.

What is often unrealised is that male Mallard Ducks have a bad reputation as the gang rapists of the duck world. This unpleasant behavior is the reason why they threaten both the native Parera/Grey Duck and the endemic Pateke Brown Teal with hybridization to extinction. Male Mallard Ducks will try to copulate with any other species of female duck that they can jump on. As a result of the Mallard Duck we are losing our biodiversity. We may lose to extinction at least one native and one endemic species of waterfowl and end up with a motley collect of mongrel hybrids ducks.

With the Mallard, we have also exported a biodiversity disaster across the south west Pacific with hybridization eliminating Parera/Grey Ducks (also called Pacific Black Ducks) from Lord Howe Island and badly affecting duck populations on New Caledonia where 50% of the Pacific Black Duck population are now Mallard hybrids. These Mallard Ducks have spread from New Zealand.

The Parera/Grey Duck is nationally critically endangered; however, it is absolutely incredible, that in 21st century that an organisation advocates the hunting of an endangered species. Check out the attached feature from the Fish & Game New Zealand website, a picture of our Parera/Grey Duck featured at the top of the page listing the duck species that you can hunt.

Amazingly there is no acknowledgement of the endangered status of the bird & no conservation or educational messages what so ever. The fact that they still advocate the hunting of an endangered species is beyond belief ! Not withstanding the identification issues with Mallards, hybrids & Parera/Grey Ducks, you at the very least think that they could encourage their hunters not to shoot them.

You may ask why do Fish & Game have such an archaic attitude to our native species ? Well, the answer is that many duck hunters in this country still have the attitude of the colonialist Acclimitisation Societies straight out of the 19th Century. They may as well be living in 1862 rather than in 2020, an attitude of “Dam Native, Don’t Care” is still there.

If you talk to many duck hunters about Parera/Grey Ducks, you will find that some are enlightened & try their best not to shoot them. However, a vast number of others you will find don’t care & don’t give a dam. Some are actually unaware of what a Parera/Grey Duck is or looks like.
Typically you find a number of defensive responses & some of these are as follows:-
(1) They will quote the Wildlife Act of 1953 & will add “I will shoot them because I can & I don’t give a f**k about them anyway”.
(2) They will wax lyrical about Fish & Games work in restoring wetlands. (Although this is commendable, it does not make up for the complete lack of protection & conservation effort provided to the Parera/Grey Duck)
(3) There is no acknowledgement whatsoever that the introduced Mallard Duck is actually an invasive species & that it is the main reason that Parera/Grey Duck is endangered.
(4) Many duck hunters would like the native Grey Teal (Anas gracilis) added to the game bird list & they will tell of their wish for that to happen. For it seems there are not enough Mallards for them & shooting the invasive Canada Geese is just a bit too hard !

Anyway, in life there is hope ! My hope is that a change will arise from within our duck shooters & the organisation that represents them. With enlightenment, a modern environmental outlook, empathy & care, I would like to see duck shooters become active conservationists & guardians of our beautiful native Parera/Grey Duck.

https://fishandgame.org.nz/game-bird-hunting-in-new-zealand/new-zealand-game-bird-species/waterfowl-ducks-and-swans/ducks-2/

Species of Duck in New Zealand | Fish & Game NZ There are four key species of duck in New Zealand: Mallard, Grey, Shoveller and Paradise duck.

As Campaign Manager for Parera/Grey Duck for Bird of the Year, one of the questions I am often asked is what makes our bird so special. They answer is that the Parera/Grey Duck is special amongst our native & endemic birds in three very unique ways:-
(1) Despite be nationally critically endangered it can incredibly be shot for sport !
(2) It receives absolutely no conservation effort from the Department of Conservation whatsoever !
(3) The main reason for its decline is not a predator, but another duck, the invasive Mallard Duck, introduced by the colonialist Acclimitisation Societies.
Now you can very well imagine the absolute uproar if other native & endemic bird species were treated in such an appalling way ? In the next few weeks, we will closely investigate why the Parera/Grey Duck is ignored & treated so badly. Expect some tough questioning. In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of our good looking native Parera/Grey Duck. 😃

A nice Grey Duck/Parera family photograph taken by Ron Chew. This family were seen on the canal that runs parallel to the causeway road going out to Puketutu Island in the Manakau Harbour. This location often has many pure Grey Ducks/Parera & it's great to see a nationally endangered species breeding within Auckland City. Mama duck appears to be encouraging her ducklings to smile ! 😃

Good news is that the Grey Duck/Parera has been selected as a candidate for Bird of the Year 2020 ! The election dates are from the 2nd to the 15th of November & we will shortly begin our campaign for what will be the second most important election this year. 🦉

Our congratulations to the Hoiho, Yellow-eyed Penguin in winning Bird of the Year for 2019. A fantastic effort by team Hoiho & the many other teams in helping to raise the awareness of our endangered birds. Thanks to everyone who voted for the Grey Duck, your support is very much appreciated.

A question sometimes asked is what is being done to help prevent the extinction of Grey Duck in New Zealand ? Well, the current answer is a simple one "absolutely nothing" ! Fish & Game don't care all & the Department of Conservation (DOC) are completely missing in action. With conservation in New Zealand, we often take justified pride in the incredible efforts in conserving our native and endemic species, the contrast being the complete lack of conservation effort with the Grey Duck being a rather shameful embarrassment to the nation. FYI: The Department of Conservation do not even include any information about the Grey Duck on their website –it expect that’s rather convenient as it lessens any embarrassment. Perhaps like New Zealand's only protected native fish, the Grayling, the Grey Duck will become a protected bird only after it becomes extinct in Aotearoa ! Please vote for the Grey Duck & help stimulate some much needed awareness, concern & action. https://www.birdoftheyear.org.nz/

As campaign manager a question that I was asked was,"what does your bird have that sets it apart from the rest?" My answer was that compared to all other birds, the Grey Duck is facing threats that are very different ! Instead of mammalian predators, its main threat is being hybridized out of existence by the sexually aggressive introduced Mallard Duck. It also receives no conservation effort whatsoever from DOC and despite being nationally endangered it can be shot as a game bird ! Yes, that's right, Fish & Game actively promote the Grey Duck as a game bird as noted in the link below. Why do we allow an endangered bird to be hunted ? https://fishandgame.org.nz/game-bird-hunting-in-new-zealand/new-zealand-game-bird-species/waterfowl-ducks-and-swans/ducks-2/

Species of Duck in New Zealand | Fish & Game NZ There are four key species of duck in New Zealand: Mallard, Grey, Shoveller and Paradise duck.

Voting has started for Bird of the Year this morning, so please cast your votes. My number #1 vote was the Grey Duck (of course). https://www.birdoftheyear.org.nz/grey-duck?d

Please use the following link to vote for your bird of the year. https://www.birdoftheyear.org.nz/grey-duck?d Our cover photo has kindly been supplied by Neil Fitzgerald.

Grey Duck (Pārera) The grey duck has striking facial strips, a leaden grey bill & a green patch of colour (speculum) on its secondary flight feathers. These features separate this handsome native from the blue tinted speculum of the introduced mallard hens & scruffy hybrids.