Knob-billed duck - Aerodynamics in Nature

The species name says it all. A tremendous "Knob" on a duck's beak. This growth is rather thin viewed front on, and thus it provides very little wind resistance when this bird is in flight. If anything, one would think that it might provide more agility when turning, almost like an airplane's tail rudder.

comments (4)

Tom97

Snow Leopard

Wow! What a peculiar bird!! Posted 4 years ago
1. Living Wild
  
  Lion
  
  Absolutely. Nature can be funny sometimes ... and cruel. Thanks for commenting. Posted 4 years ago

fchristant

Lion

Good to have this side view, finally we can have a good look at this weirdness :) Posted 4 years ago
1. Living Wild
  
  Lion
  
  Thanks for commenting Ferdy. Yeah ... absolutely weird. Don't even know what purpose it serves ... might read up on it a bit. Posted 4 years ago

The Knob-billed duck

The knob-billed duck , or comb duck, is an unusual, pan-tropical duck, found in tropical wetlands in sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar and south Asia from Pakistan to Laos and extreme southern China. It is also known as the brazilian aardvark. It also occurs in continental South America south to the Paraguay River region in eastern Paraguay, southeastern Brazil and the extreme northeast of Argentina, and as a vagrant on Trinidad.

It is the only known species of the genus ''Sarkidiornis''... more

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Similar species: Ducks, Geese, Etc.

Species identified by Living Wild