Critically Endangered
Bengal Florican
Houbaropsis bengalensis
The Bengal florican is a bustard species native to the Indian subcontinent, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
Appearance
The male Bengal florican has a black plumage from the head and neck to underparts. The upperside is buff with fine black vermiculations and black arrowhead markings, and there is a conspicuous large white patch from the wing coverts to the remiges. In flight, the male's wings appear entirely white except for the dark primary remiges.
Adult Bengal floricans range from 66–68 cm (26–27 in) in length and stand around 55 cm (22 in) tall. The female is larger than the male and weighs around 1.7–1.9 kg (3.7–4.2 lb) against a weight of 1.2–1.5 kg (2.6–3.3 lb) in males.
Published measurements include mass about 1.975.
Range and habitat
One occurs from Uttar Pradesh through the Terai of Nepal to Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in India, and historically to Bangladesh. The other occurs in Cambodia and perhaps adjacent southern Vietnam. It is mostly resident on its breeding grounds. Around Tonlé Sap in Cambodia even so, the birds use grasslands near the lake to breed, and move away from the water in the wet season when the breeding grounds are flooded.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
It is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List because fewer than 1,000 individuals were estimated to be alive as of 2017. It is known to have become increasingly threatened by land conversion for intensive agriculture, particularly for dry season rice production. Poaching continues to be a problem in Southeast Asia, while the South Asian population is down to less than 350 adult birds, about 85% of that are found in India.
Even though more threatened, birds in Southeast Asia may number as many as in South Asia but more probably closer to or even less than 1,000 adults.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Bengal Florican 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 Bengal Florican, Wikidata item Q809610. 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.
