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The well-named and spectacular torrent duck is a prime goal for birders visiting southern South America. As its name implies, it lives in fast-moving water, typically mountain streams and rivers. Torrent ducks show strong sexual dimorphism and both sexes are strikingly marked: the male with flashy black-and-white head stripes; the female with a rust-red underside (both sexes have bright red bills). We were happy to see a pair on the Rio Gray, a glacial meltwater stream in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine in south Chile. When we found them they were resting on a moss-covered rock a bit downstream from the Lago Grey pedestrian bridge (upper left). On a second visit they were foraging busily, acting almost like huge dippers, jumping in and out of the water with great agility, maintaining position with ease in the current, and skittering over the surface like a hydrofoil when they wanted to move fast. The more distant images (bottom of the page) of males with streaked breasts are of torrent ducks from Peru, near Machu Picchu and Cusco. |
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