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The spur-winged goose is a common bird of African wetlands. Perhaps the main threat to the species is development and destruction of wetland habitats and unregulated hunting. A counting survey of the population in western Africa wetlands from Senegal to Chad in early 1977 produced a count of 10,000 geese, mostly being found in the Niger basin. [6]
The African Goose is one of two domestic goose breeds that derive from the wild species Anser cygnoides, the other being the Chinese, to which it is closely related. [9]: 364 [3] Domestication took place in north Asia, and birds of this type were later brought to Europe, possibly via Madagascar; [10] they were present in Britain before the end of the seventeenth century.
The Egyptian goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca) is an African member of the Anatidae family including ducks, geese, and swans. Because of their popularity chiefly as an ornamental bird , the species has also been introduced to Europe, the United States and elsewhere outside their natural range.
The cotton pygmy goose or cotton teal (Nettapus coromandelianus) is a small perching duck which breeds in Asia, Southeast Asia extending south and east to Queensland where they are sometimes called white-quilled pygmy goose. They are among the smallest waterfowl in the world and are found in small to large waterbodies with good aquatic vegetation.
African birds breed during and after the rainy season and may not breed if the rain is scanty. Knob-billed ducks nest mainly in tree holes, [4] also in tall grass. Males may have two mates at once or up to five in succession. They defend the females and young but not the nest sites. Females lay 7 to 15 [4] yellowish-white eggs.
The African pygmy goose was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux in 1785. [4] The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. [5]
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The nest is built by the male in about a week, and is a kidney-shaped, fully waterproof construction made of broad strips of grass or reeds that are woven together. Once a female accepts the nest the male builds an entrance tunnel at its base, while she lines the inside of the nest with fine grass and feathers.