Aix galericulata
Status: No accepted records.
Taxonomy: No subspecies are recognized (AviList 2025).
Comments: There are reports from five locations. A free-flying, unmarked male was found at Pier Park, Grand Island, Hall Co 14 Dec 2011 and apparently wintered there, with sightings through 29 Feb 2012; a female was present 21 Feb (Steve Morris, personal communication). Presumably the same unmarked individual male returned to winter at Pier Park 15 Dec 2012; it was in high plumage and seen and photographed through 16 Mar 2013. There was a single sighting of presumably the same bird 12 Jan 2014. Pier Park is a wintering site for Wood Ducks, with 10-20 wintering there each year. Another male was photographed at Holmes Lake, Lancaster Co around 17 Dec 2017, and one shot by a hunter in 2010 showed no signs of having been in captivity. A male of unknown provenance was with Wood Ducks at a reuse pit at Holdrege, Phelps Co 2-13 May 2025. A male was photographed on the South Platte River in Keith Co 19 Oct 2025.
eBird “species maps” show a large number of reports of Mandarin Duck in North America, with most reports on the Pacific Coast and in the eastern US west to the Great Lakes. Mandarin Duck is migratory in its Asia home range, and by far the fewest reports in the US are Jun-Aug. Usually, sightings of escaped or released birds show no clear seasonal pattern. The Pier Park, Nebraska bird discussed above re-appeared for three consecutive winters which suggests a persistent annual movement pattern by that individual; its summer range was unknown.
Notable established populations in the US include the following. A long-standing (20+ years) breeding population exists in Pueblo Co, Colorado (Dave Ely, personal communication). There are also feral populations in Sonoma County, California, Black Mountain, North Carolina, and near Salt Lake City, Utah, the latter thought to have resulted from a release by a collector.
Images
Literature Cited
AviList Core Team, 2025. AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025.
https://doi.org/10.2173/avilist.v2025.
Recommended Citation
Silcock, W.R., and J.G. Jorgensen. 2025. Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata). In Birds of Nebraska — Online. www.BirdsofNebraska.org
Birds of Nebraska – Online
Updated 1 Dec 2025