BLUE DUCK Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos

Another abberant duck in a monotypic family, this bird is endangered and endemic to New Zealand. Two subspecies have been described, with quite strong genetic divergence, although there has been no suggestion of a split as yet. Frequenting fast flowing rocky rivers, similar to Torrent Duck in South America, often makes seeing them in the wild difficult. We could not access the South Island birds due to flooding, but did manage to find them in North Island, where we also observed ducklings.

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