Anatidae

Short black bill and longish neck and legs, Male: head and neck chocolate-brown with short black mane; body and wings pale-grey, undertail black. Female: paler; head and neck pale gingery-brown, dark under tail-coverts. Immature: like female, duller.

Diurnal, Mate for life,

Woodland, Streams; timbered swamps and waterholes; earth dams, occasionally on sea.

Breeding dependant on rainfall. 6 to12; creamy white eggs in a hole in tree nest lined with feathers Incubation 28 days by female while male guards, both sexes care for the young once hatched. Fledge in 50 days.

Omnivore, Grass and herbage on the waters edge; insects and small invertebrates.