Cotton Pygmy Goose

The cotton pygmy goose, or cotton teal, is a small perching duck and one of the smallest waterfowl in the world, with the smallest birds weighing as little as 160g and measuring 26cm. The bill is short, deep and goose-like. Males have a dark brown forehead and crown, a whitish face and neck, a broad blackish-green collar and dark upperparts glossed green and purple; in flight their dark wings show white flight feathers tipped black. Females have a duller cap, a brown line through the eye, no collar and a white trailing edge to the wing (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives on ponds, lakes and shallow water with plenty of floating and emergent plants such as water lilies and lotus, usually in pairs or groups of pairs, and roosts and nests in trees near water. It feeds at the surface without diving or upending, taking small fish, molluscs, crustaceans, insect larvae and plant matter, and breeds during the rains. In India it is resident with a very large range. SoIB 2023 estimates a long-term decline of about 57% and a current fall of about 4% a year, and rates it a Moderate conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).