The Falkland Steamer Duck, Tachyeres brachypterus, is a steamer duck native to the Falkland Islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is one of only two bird species to be endemic to the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas in Spanish), the other being Cobb's Wren.
The Falkland Steamer Duck's wings are very short (hence the scientific name: brachy = "short", and pteron = "wing"), and it is incapable of flight. The plumage of the Falkland Steamer Duck is mostly dark grey, but with a white stripe behind the eye. It is very difficult to distinguish from the Flying Steamer Duck in the field since they occupy the same habitat and, although the Flying Steamer Duck can fly, it rarely does.
Famous quotes containing the words steamer and/or duck:
“Again we mistook a little rocky islet seen through the “drisk,” with some taller bare trunks or stumps on it, for the steamer with its smoke-pipes, but as it had not changed its position after half an hour, we were undeceived. So much do the works of man resemble the works of nature. A moose might mistake a steamer for a floating isle, and not be scared till he heard its puffing or its whistle.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Philip Roth (b. 1933)