Tim writes: the Falkland Steamer Duck (Tachyeres brachypterus) is a flightless duck that is endemic to the Falkland Islands. They are called Steamer Ducks because they paddle across the water surface using their wings in the manner of a paddle-steamer. Charles Darwin described this movement much better in his Voyage of the Beagle (1833) “These birds were in former days called, from their extraordinary manner of paddling and splashing upon the water, race-horses; but now they are named, much more appropriately, steamers. Their wings are too small and weak to allow of flight, but by their aid, partly swimming and partly flapping the surface of the water, they move very quickly“.
They also seem to be very pugnacious birds, often showing aggression and using their wings as weapons. Those orange studs at the elbow seemed to be used like “knuckle-dusters” during fights. This individual was aggressively approaching another Steamer Duck when I took the picture.
This was taken on Carcass Island in the Falklands.
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Brilliant piece, there is an extinct flightless ibis from Jamaica (probably lost due to the arrival of humans) which possibly/probably used bony outgrowths on their wings to fight each other too – https://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk/blog/_archives/2011/01/05/4719720.html. I had no idea steamer ducks have these ‘knuckle dusters’.
Thanks Les. There are quite a few birds with weapons on their elbows. Spur-winged Goose and Spur-winged Plover/Lapwing are named after them but they are also on Southern Lapwing. Wattled Jacanas have a spine as sharp as a rose thorn, while juvenile Hoatzins are famous for having claws at the elbows to help them clamber out of water back into the bushes, though these are lost as the bird ages.
Are not the orange studs on the carpel joint (the wrist) of the bird, not on the elbow?