Critically Endangered
Baer's Pochard
Aythya baeri
Baer's pochard is a diving duck found in eastern Asia.
Appearance
Breeding male has a black head and neck with green gloss, white or paler yellow eyes, blackish-brown back, dark chestnut breast, white or light chestnut flanks and a short and low tail. Female has brown eyes and a dark brown head and neck that blend into the chestnut-brown breast and flanks. Eclipse and first-winter male resembles female, but retain the white eyes.
The Baer's pochard is 41–47 cm (16–19 in) long with a 70–79 cm (28–31 in) wingspan. The male is slightly larger, weighing on average 500–730 g (18–26 oz), wings lengthed 18.6–20.3 cm (7.3–8.0 in), tail at 53–60 mm (2.1–2.4 in), and culmen at 38–44 mm (1.5–1.7 in).
Published measurements include mass about 880.
Range and habitat
It winters in most areas south of the Yellow River in China, Taiwan, Japan, Bangladesh, India, North Korea, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam, and occasionally appears in Bhutan, South Korea, Philippines or Pakistan as a rare vagrant. For example, there are some doubtful breeding reports in the Chinese part of Lake Khanka, the Russian part of Lake Khasan, and the Muraviovka Park. Baer's pochard is a diving duck found in eastern Asia.
The nest, built from sedges, reeds and other plants, is placed among emergent vegetation, usually in shallow water or on small islands or ridges. It is planned to be further expanded and used for reintroduction.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
It breeds around lakes with rich aquatic vegetation, nesting in dense grass, flooded tussock meadows, or flooded shrubby meadows. In migrating season, they form small groups of more than 10 or dozens of birds, flying at low altitudes in wedge-shaped formations.
Little is known about their diet beyond aquatic plants, grass seeds and molluscs. Baer's pochard appears to have a monogamous mating system, at least within a breeding season. In traditional breeding grounds in northeastern China, Baer's pochard gathers in gaps in the ice before it completely thawed.
In crisis
The number of mature individuals may be fewer than 1,000, and its population is still declining. This species has been classified as critically endangered by the IUCN, and listed as a first-class protected animal in China. Mature individuals may be less than 1,000.
According to records in China, there were 16,792 wintering individuals from 1986/87 to 1992/93, but only 3,472 from 1993/94 to 1998/99, and only 2,131 from 2002/03 to 2010/11. While by 1999/00-2004/05, only 719 were counted in all wintering grounds except China, and only 48 individuals in 2005/06-2010/11.
Baer's Pochard is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Baer's Pochard, Wikidata item Q740680. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
