Baer's Pochard

Baer's pochard is a diving duck of eastern Asia with a distinctive black head and neck with a green gloss, which in poor light may look completely black. It is similar to and closely related to the ferruginous duck, and the two were once treated as one species, but Baer's pochard has white flanks when floating, a longer, more rounded head and is larger. It is 41–47 cm long with a wingspan of 70–79 cm (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a resident bird in north and central China and formerly bred in south-east Russia and north-east China, migrating in winter to southern China, Vietnam, Japan and India, and in Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam, and occasionally appearing as a rare vagrant in Bhutan, Pakistan and elsewhere. The nest is built of sedges and reeds among emergent vegetation in shallow water or on small islands, with a clutch of 5–14 eggs, averaging 9.7. Hunting and habitat loss are the main reasons for its decline. SoIB 2023 rates it a High conservation priority, with a Very Restricted range of about 1,750 km² (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).