White-winged Duck

The white-winged duck, or white-winged wood duck, is a large, secretive duck 66–81 cm long with a wingspan of 116–153 cm. Males weigh 2.94–3.9 kg and females 1.95–3.05 kg. It was formerly placed with the Muscovy duck in the genus Cairina. It is the state bird of Assam, and was historically widely distributed from north-eastern India and Bangladesh through Southeast Asia to Java and Sumatra (Wikipedia, general species account).

It feeds mainly at dawn and dusk when moving between day roosts and feeding sites, and is described as omnivorous, eating pondweed, small fish, aquatic snails, spiders and insects. It lives on stagnant or slow-flowing natural and artificial wetlands within or adjacent to evergreen, deciduous or swamp forest, which it depends on for roosting and nesting, usually in tree holes. Lowlands below about 400 m are optimal, but it occurs up to 1,400 m. SoIB 2023 rates it a High conservation priority, with a Very Restricted range of about 5,000 km² (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).