American Black Duck Record from Korea

On 18 June 1977, two American servicemen stationed at Kwang Ju Air Base in Korea found a dead bird, carrying a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service band, in rice paddies 3 mi (4.8 km) west of Kwang Ju, and sent the band, number 767-65352, to the FWS. According to the records of the FWS Bird Banding Laboratory, the band had been placed on an American Black Duck (Anas rubripes) at the Elm Hill Game Management Area 1 mi (1.6 km) east of Kerr Dam, Mecklenberg Co., Virginia, on 11 February 1969. The bird had been identified as an after-hatching-year male by the bander, D. B. Duffer, of the Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries. It was one of 15 American Black Ducks banded at that location on that day. This appears to be the first report of the American Black Duck in Asia. The species is a casual migrant or visitant as far northwest in North America as central Alaska. A bird in central Alaska might join a flock of Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) or another species that migrates to Asia with some frequency. American Black Ducks have been reported as vagrants in northern Europe, so flights of some distance are not unprecedented. I thank Kathleen Klimkiewicz of the Bird Banding Laboratory for making information about this band recovery available to me, and the Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries for permission to publish this report of its band recovery. (DBO)