Rhodonessa caryophyllacea

Class: Aves
Order: Anseriformes
Family: Anatidae

LAST SEEN: 1949 IN INDIA
CRITICALLY ENDANGERED

Size – 60 cm.

Physical Description

  • Long-necked duck.
  • Males have head, sides of neck, and hind neck pale rosy pink; tuft of bright pink on head; throat brown; rest of body mainly glossy dark brown (paler beneath). . Rosy-pinkish bill.
  • Females have duller and browner body, pale greyish-pink head and upper neck with brownish wash on crown and hindneck and duller bill.

Distribution and Habitat

  • This birds was locally distributed in the wetlands of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar, and occurred rarely in Nepal, with most records from north-east India and adjacent Bangladesh.
  • They often inhabited small ponds that were surrounded by bushes and high grass. The surrounding country was usually a plain cut by deep streams. During the colder months they may have moved to rivers.

Reproduction

  • The ducks were usually seen on their own or in pairs, and sometimes during the breeding season they aggregated in small flocks of up to ten birds.
  • The breeding season of these duck begin in April, female lay spherical eggs, that was either pure white or pale yellow.
  • The eggs were and were almost perfectly spherical, unlike the eggs of most other ducks. A clutch consisted of as many as nine eggs and was attended by both the male and female.

Causes for extinction

    • Clearance of forest and conversion of wetlands for agricultural land has destroyed much of its habitat.
    • It is supposed that invasive alien species water hyacinth Eichhornia crassipesmay have contributed to its decline by altering wetland habitats.
    • During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when hunting levels in India were high, hunting pressure and egg collection is also supposed to be the reasons for their decline.