The Spotbill, Anas poecilorhyncha, is a dabbling duck which breeds in tropical and eastern Asia.
This duck is resident in the southern part of its range from India to southern Japan, but the northern race, Chinese Spotbill is migratory, wintering in southeast Asia. It is quite gregarious outside the breeding season and forms small flocks.
These are Mallard-sized mainly grey ducks with a paler head and neck and a black bill tipped bright yellow. The wings are whitish with black flight feathers below, and from above show a white-bordered green speculum and white tertials.
The male has a red spot on the base of the bill, which is absent or inconspicuous in the smaller but otherwise similar female. Juveniles are browner and duller than adults. The Chinese Spotbill is browner. It lacks the red bill spot, and has a blue speculum.
It is a bird of freshwater lakes and marshes in fairly open country and feeds by dabbling for plant food mainly in the evening or at night. It nests on the ground in vegetation near water, and lays 8-14 eggs.
The male and female have calls similar to the Mallard.
This anomalous bird shares affinities with both warblers and babblers, but as yet it is unclear just what it is. That, however, is unimportant, we had seen them well and that was all that mattered.
This highly distinctive bird is usually treated as a race of Chinese Grey Shrike, although it was originally described as a distinct species, Lanius giganteus, by Przewalski in 1887.
It is much larger than Chinese Grey Shrike, wing length ranges between 134-147mm compared with 120-126mm for Chinese Grey Shrike.
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