Hartlaub's Duck is resident in equatorial West and Central Africa, from Guinea and Sierra Leone east through Nigeria to Sudan, and south to Gabon, Congo and Zaire.
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Analysis of mtDNA sequences of the cytochrome b and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 genes suggests that it belongs into a very distinct clade—possibly a subfamily of its own—together with the Blue-winged Goose, another African species of waterfowl with uncertain affinities.
About one half of the total population, currently estimated at about 30 000 birds, are within the Greater Cape Town area.
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It breeds in large colonies, and the main traditional breeding colony for the Cape Town area is on Robben Island.
Hartlaub |
The subspecies D. a. modestus (Príncipe) together with D. a. coracinus and D. a. atactus (Bioko and mainland west and central Africa from Guinea east to western Kenya and south to Angola) is usually split as a separate species, the Velvet-mantled Drongo D. modestus, (Hartlaub, 1849).