Pink-eared duck
species of bird
The pink-eared duck (Malacorhynchus membranaceus) is a species of duck found in Australia.
Description
The pink-eared duck has a large spatulate bill like the Australasian shoveler, but is smaller at 38–40 cm length. Its brown back and crown, black and white barred sides and black eye patches on its otherwise white face make this bird unmistakable. Juveniles are slightly duller, but otherwise all plumages are similar. Its vernacular name refers to a pink spot in the corner formed by the black head pattern; it is only noticeable at close distance however, making the origin of the seldom-used Australian name of zebra duck more readily apparent.
Taxonomy and systematics
The pink-eared duck was first described by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1801 under the binomial name Anas membranacea. It is the only living member of the genus Malacorhynchus; a closely related, but slightly larger extinct form from New Zealand was described as Scarlett's duck (Malacorhynchus scarletti). This peculiar duck may be most closely related to the shelducks but its relationships are enigmatic. It may be closer to the musk duck and the stiff-tails and, formerly placed in the paraphyletic "perching ducks"; it is in any case not close to the dabbling ducks.
This species is the only member of the order Anseriformes known to have carotenoid pigments in its feathers, in the characteristic pink "ear" spot.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q917578. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1801.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pink-eared duck” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.