Weird & Wonderful Knob-billed Duck | Sarkidiornis melanotos

Knob-billed Duck, Sarkidiornis melanotos, has become a common bird in a little-known area of rice fields in Southern Thailand, so I went to learn about them on a birding trip in June 2024. Knob-billed Duck is also known as Comb Duck and although this bird has a wide world distribution there are few areas that it is common. Many birders are surprised to see how big Knob-billed Duck is and with that weird and wonderful bill, this is certainly an impressive bird. In this birding video I take you to see a flock of Knob-billed Ducks in a rice field in Thailand where you can learn a little about their habits.
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[@BirdingwithNick]

Have you ever seen Knob-billed Duck or do you know of a duck that is even more strange than this one?

[@Hardtopleeese]

Smew for beauty and pink eared duck for what the hell is wrong with it?

[@BirdingwithNick]

@@Hardtopleeese I am with you with Smew, the male is so stunning. When I lead my South Korea winter birding tours I can never get enough of these. Yeah, that Pink-eared Duck is one I was not familiar with but just looked it up; some crazy mixture of plumages going on there for sure.

[@EyeSeeThruYou]

The ducks are beautiful, great views you shared here! 👍 😊

[@Hardtopleeese]

@@BirdingwithNick I think you missed the key point of the pink eared duck. The bill is square and the sides droop like jowls! It's due to the filter feeding. Most baby ducks look normal. Pink eared is weird from the get go.

[@BirdingwithNick]

Well, for me the bill is a bit odd but very similar to that of Northern Shoveler but yes, I just looked at a better photo and the way it droops down is unique I think.

[@peterericsson8904]

Nice!

[@BirdingwithNick]

Cheers

[@HelenaMikas]

Tried commenting many times on this great video .Will it remain now ? Liked and thanks a lot :-)

[@BirdingwithNick]

Your comment certainly has appeared now. Glad you liked it, hopefully more to come after taking time away from editing and uploading. So much footage on the hard drive now.

[@m3nathan]

Im not sure if they ranges globally but here in Australia we have Musk Ducks, they're almost the exact opposite of these Knob-billed quackers

[@BirdingwithNick]

I just had a look at Musk Duck. That has to win some wort of award for weirdest bird. Thanks for that.

[@Hummingbirder1]

00:13 Well... ackchtuallly (sorry, I just HAD to..🤓.) Comb Duck is the South American one, Sarkidiornis sylvicola... It's split, at least for now... But it seems The Powers That Be want to lump them to one species. At least, this is according to IOC, which I follow. Maybe Clements count them as one?🤔

[@BirdingwithNick]

Yes, thanks for pointing that out. You are right about that of course, but my reference was really pertaining to many of the field guides that were not updated when they were split and the fact that locally, most birders (at least the ones I know in Asia) are still calling it Comb Duck. In fact when discussing the species with lots of Thai birders recently, all of them called it Comb Duck when speaking in English. As an aside, the Thai name is เป็ดหงส์ (duck swan) and that does not seem to have changed whether split from the South American birds or not. Split, lumped, split, lumped. It's hard to keep up with. The birds must be very confused about their identity.

[@PattyDung]

Maybe he's trying to convince the female that she'll get an Oreo Cookie. . .

[@BirdingwithNick]

Hahaha, impossible to resist!

[@Birding-with-Brian]

Luv a duck... great video mate..

[@BirdingwithNick]

Haha, that's a phrase I haven't heard in a long time. Cheers.