Radjah Shelduck

The Radjah Shelduck (Tadorna Radjah), or Radjah, is the most elegant and beautiful of the six surviving species, the smallest, the daintiest, the most specialized of the shelduck, and the only one that inhabits the tropics. Radjah (Tadorna Radjah) is the Hindi word for kind or rule. It is white, with dark wing-tips and a distinctive "collar" of dark feathers. Seen from above in flight the birds have green bands on the tops of their wings. The female has a harsh rattle and the male has a breathy, sore-throat whistle. The Radjah Shelduck (Tadorna Radjah) inhabits the mangrove forests and coastline of New Guinea and Australia. In Australia, its primary range is coastal tropical northern Australia, from central Queensland through northern Northern Territory (including Kakadu National Park) to the Kimberley in Western Australia. It usually roosts by day in waterside green, leafy trees particularly paperbark trees and mangroves, and easily and confidently walk up and down branches. Commonly loafing on mud banks, it seldom ventures far from water and runs swiftly. The Radjah Shelduck (Tadorna Radjah) forms long-term pair-bonds, and is usually encountered in lone pairs or small flocks. During the wet season the males commonly become very irritable, and have been observed attacking their mates. Feeding mostly nocturnally, the shelducks forage by walking rapidly in swallow water, sweeping their bill-tip from side to side just beneath the mud surface in quest of small mollusks, insects, sedge materials and algae. They also up-end, dabble and graze ashore. Usually encountered as pairs or in small parties of 6-8 birds during the reproductive season, they may move up to larger bodies of water as family groups when they haunts dry up, where assemblages of 20-60 gather, with flocks occasionally exceeding 200 ducks. Breeding activity commences prior to or at the onset of the rainy season, when flocks break up and disperse. Nesting does not begin until after the rains. The Australian breeding season extends from January/February to June, but mainly April through June. Timing and duration of nesting is dependent on the extend and intensity of the rainy season, and if the rains are lengthy, breeding can be prolonged. Nests are normally located in the hollow limbs, often where large limbs break away from the trunks, usually in trees in or near water. Favored cavities are often reoccupied annually by the same pair. Egg-laying is usually done by May or June, when drying exposes considerable bare mud and grass, which constitutes ideal feeding habitat.