Baer's pochard (Aythya baeri) Manipuri: Nganu
- Critically Endangered: CR -
The Threatened Birds of Manipur

R.K. Birjit Singh *

Baer's pochard (Aythya baeri) Manipuri: Nganu

Classification:
Kindgdom Animalia
Phylum Chordatata
Class: Aves
Order: Anseriformes
Family: Anatidae
Genus: Aythya
Species: baeri
Binomial Name:
Aythya baeri
(Radde, 1863)
Red List Category & Criteria:IUCN: Crtically Endangered (CR) D ver 3.1

Record of shooting and killing of the species in Manipur( Game Birds of Manipur)

Year	Number
1912-13	01
1914-15	01
1915-16	03
1918-19	02
1920-21	01
1923-24	01
1924-25	05
1925-26	12
1926-27	02
1927-28	09
1928-29	04
1929-30	06
1930-31	01
1931-32	03
Total	51

History of the Species:

The name of the diving duck species has been given after the Estonian naturalist Karl Ernst von Baer and was described by Gustav F.R Radde in 1863. Due to the rapid declination of the population of the species, it has been up listed from endangered to critically endanger in 2012. There was no record of the species in the subsequent volumes of Stray Feathers of A.O. Hume in his “Birds of Manipur, Assam, Sylhet and Cachar (1888).

But a fair and a good record of shooting down of the species had been recorded in the Game Birds of Manipur state with Short Notes On Their Numbers, Migration And Habits(1933-34) by J.C. Higgins, the then British Political Agent in Manipur(1917-1918;1924-1928;1946).

In 1892 some material of the remnants of the ill fated British Regency (March, 1891) was hand over to P. Maxwell by Captain Cowley which contains some partly burned and dusty photographs of Maipakpi and waterfowls in captivity, probably believed to be the collections of Mr. Frank Grimwood, British Political Agent of the time who was very much interested in photography.

Capt. H.W.G Coles had described the waterfowl photograph as Baer's pochard but J.C. Higgins did not mention any about the photograph in his book. Lt. Col. H.W.G Coles shot down one individual in 1912. Altogether 51 individual species were shot down from 1912 to 1932 in Manipur. The last and recent record of sighting of the species was at Kumbipat in 2008. But it was not properly documented.

Description of the species:

Size: Length: ± 41-46 cm. In the field condition it is very hard to distinguish between ferruginous pochard (Aytha nyroca) and this species but in the breeding season the neck and head of the male species is glossed with green grading into rufous-chestnut on breast and during the eclipse or non-breeding season, the species duller with unglossed head and neck. The females of Baer's pochard and the Ferruginous Duck are quite similar, but that holds true for the females of almost all Aythya species. Eclipse males resemble females, but retain the white eye.

Distribution: Aythya baeri breeds in the Amur and Ussuri basins in Russia and north-eastern China. It winters mainly in eastern and southern mainland China,India, Manipur, Assam,Bangladesh and Myanmar, with smaller numbers in Japan, North Korea, South Korea ,Hong Kong , Taiwan and Nepal. But now a very rare visitor and absent in some habitat range.

Food: Little known

Status in Manipur: Not seen since 2008

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* R.K. Birjit Singh wrote this article for e-pao.net
The writer is Environmentalist/Ornithologist and a State Coordinator, IBCN, Manipur and can be contacted at bsningthemcha(at)gmail(dot)com
This article was posted on October 08, 2014.

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