Muscovy Duck
Shannon Wagoner
Artwork for ‘Birds‘ (Issue 26)
The Science
This Muscovy Duck hangs out at the pond by my local park with a flock of geese. It's the only duck, marked as an escapee on eBird, CornellLab's bird tracking app, because Muscovy Ducks typically have a range of movement that falls further south. Some birds go through great measures to land in their current habitats and when found outside of their normal ranges are descriptively termed "escape birds" or "escapees."
More details about this informal classification can be found at https://support.ebird.org/en/support/solutions/articles/48001218430-exotic-and-introduced-species-in-ebird and https://freesourcelibrary.com/mastering-escape-avian-adaptations/. This study on details the whys and impacts of magpies and sparrows on their escape behaviors https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2053716625000945, and although it's not a study on Muscovy Ducks, may point to some of the similar life experiences that all escapee birds endure.
The Medium
This is a photograph that was created using a Canon Elan 7E (film camera) and Kodak Gold 200 35mm film, a telephoto zoom lens, and a lot of time observing. In its original format it could be printed at 12x18".
The Artist
Shannon Wagoner (they/them) is a writer, early childhood educator, and photographer living in Charlottesville, Virginia. They love looking for the small details of life, often present through slow observation or with the help of a macro or zoom lens. More of their work can be found at linktr.ee/shanwagoner and you can find them on Instagram and Substack @shanwagoner.
Copyright statement. This work is published under the CC BY-NC-SA license