Rhodonessa caryophyllacea (Pink-headed Duck)

[sebbe67]

Rhodonessa caryophyllacea

This duck was last reported from India in the 1930. The last one died in park in England 1945 since then no more birds was seen but. But the status of the bird in Myanmar has always been very uncertain If the bird had survived it must be in these very remote and little known northern parts of the country.

Tim Appleton and a team of people who visited Myanmar between November 26 and December 20, 2004 noticed a bright pink head and neck, and is believed to be the Pink-headed Duck. However, the lack of photographic evidence prevents the claim from being officially acknowledged. The team hopes to travel again towards the end of this year to confirm their sighting.

[sebbe67]

www.kolkatabirds.com/pinkheadedduck8bg.jpg

www.wwt.org.uk/threatsp/images/phd.jpg

some picture of this bird which are very close to a rediscovery.

[Deleted]

Hello !

To rediscover this species would be great. Its one of the stangest ducks, if not the strangest ever.

Bye Alex

[Melly]

I think this is a rumour but it would be a sensation if this were really the case. By the way a photograph of living Pink Headed Ducks are in the Book "Extinct Birds" by Errol Fuller. The picture shows a pair of ducks in a famous wild fowl park in England in 1923.

[sebbe67]

There is no other duck or water living bird that are even close in apperence. The status for the species in Myanmar has always been very little known. there has been very little information and surveys on the species in Myanmar. They northern parts of Myanmar are one of the lowest populated areas in whole south Asia and it also one of the least known and most remote part in Asia aswell. Its not impossible that this species still remain in this very little known area.

[Melly]

I've found another article

(translated from French into English with Babelfish from Altavista)

An ornithological event to confirm

In red, old surface of principal distribution of Duck with pink head. In yellow, zone of Myanmar (Burma) where the species was already noted in the past

A team of BirdLife International carrying out of winter countings in Myanmar (Burma) of November 26 at December 20, 2004 would have observed, with a "probability of 99%", a Duck with pink head (Rhodonessa caryophyllacea), regarded as disappeared.

The bird had a head and a sharp pink neck, and was seen through telescope during more than 2 minutes.
Being given the importance of this event, if it is confirmed, Ornithomedia.com proposes a presentation of this species to you whose empaillé specimen is exposed to the Natural history museum of Paris, in the gallery devoted to the disappeared or very threatened species.
Abstract

A team from BirdLife International including Tim Appleton and Jonathan Eames doing bird surveys in Burma during 26 Nov - 20 Dec 2004 saw a bird which they're "99% sure" was a Pink-headed Duck Rhodonessa caryophyllacea, long considered extinct. The bird had a bright pink head and neck and was scoped by three members of the team for 2 1/2 minutes. The BirdLife team will return to Burma in November 2005 for another attempt to find Pink-headed Duck.

In this article, we propose you a description of this extinct bird.

An observation to be confirmed

According to Baz Hughes, which posted information on January 17, 2005 on the twsg-forum, a team of BirdLife International carrying out of winter countings in Myanmar (Burma) of November 26 at December 20, 2004 would have observed, with a "probability of 99%", a Duck with pink head (Rhodonessa caryophyllacea), regarded as disappeared. The bird had a head and a sharp pink neck, and was seen through telescope during more than 2 minutes.
The team of BirdLife must turn over to Burma in November 2005 for réessayer to observe Duck with pink head.
Myanmar is far from known from an ornithological point of view, and there remain great wetlands which could hold many surprises.
It should be noted that in 1998, the WWT financed a forwarding in Tibet carried out by Peter Gladstone and Charles Martell, and that Tibetan Government Forestry Department had then announced the Duck observation with pink head in an area isolated from Bhutan, without the members of forwarding not being able to locate them.


Description of duck with pink head


Duck with pink head (Rhodonessa caryophyllacea) adult
Source: WWT
Its size was that of a domestic duck.
Its postures were close to that of a dendrocygne, while its proportions and the pattern of its plumage evoked rather Fuligule pochard (Aythya ferina).
The adult male had the head, the nozzle the sides of neck, and the nape of the neck of beautiful a pink. On the head, one could note two zones of feathers pink sharp. The throat was brown, and the remainder of the body was brown dark shining (paler lower part).
The adult female was darker. Its nozzle, its head and its neck were rosâtres, but dissociated remainder of the brown body little. The spéculum was crême-brown.
The immature one was brown clear and had the head and the neck white-rosâtre, with the top of the head, the neck and the nape of the neck brown.
The edges of the wings were blanchâtres, and the spéculum was reddish with a white band.

Behavior


Duck with pink head (Rhodonessa caryophyllacea) youthful
Source: WWT
Its diet was badly known: the analysis of the gizzard of a dead bird made it possible to find seeds of plants watery and small shells. The anatomy of the arterial trachea suggests that this species often plunged.
Apparently, it acted especially of a Duck of surface, and its principal food was made up of watery organizations and plants.
Small groups (from 6 to 8 individuals, sometimes up to 40) were formed especially in winter. During the most cold months, the birds were observed on the large rivers, moving little. They were nourished especially surfaces some, sometimes while plunging.

Reproduction

The season of nesting of Duck with pink head started in April. The round nest was built in tufts of tall grasses close to water. The nests were carried out with dry grass and some feathers. During this period, it was especially seen in couple, sometimes in small troops to ten birds. The eggs were white pure or yellow pale and were almost perfectly spherical, with the difference of eggs of the majority of the others anatidés. The incubation was ensured by the male and the female.

Drive out

The scarcity of the species attracted the covetousness of many hunters. Their flesh however was appreciated little. Ducks with pink head however were often sold on the markets of Calcutta (India).
The destruction of its habitat also played an important part in the extinction of the species.

Old distribution


The duck with pink head was surely never abundant. Its population started has to decline in 1878, because of the hunting and of the destruction of its habitat. The last data confirmed in a wild state goes back to June 1935 in Darbhanga, in Bihar (India). It is regarded as extinct.
The Duck with pink head was one of the water birds rarest of India. It was mainly present in the sector ranging between the north of the lower course of Gange and the west of the Brahmapoutra river ("Bengal"), but also with the north of Myanmar.
In short, the zone bordering northern bank of Gange, from Bhagalpur to the zone and Farakka dam, especially around Karagola, represents what, it there has 150 years, constituted the most important zone for the species.
It acted of a sedentary species in the north and the North-East of Scandinavian India (states of Orissa, of Bihar, of Bengal, of Assam and Manipur), in the covered hills of forests of the Himalayas and in the contiguous plains. It was sporadically observed in winter in Pendjab, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Nadu Tamil. It was also noted in Nepal and Tibet.
In its surface of distribution of India and Nepal, the Duck with pink head attended especially the marshes of the Himalayas Terai and Duars and the wet forests of plain. It preferred the small ponds with a watery rich person vegetation. During the most cold months, it moved towards the rivers. It was generally observed only or in small groups, and couple during the season of reproduction (May-July). The bird was timid and being wary, and was often seen only in flight.

In Myanmar

The species was noted there only in some localities, with a last unquestionable data in 1910.
It was apparently rare in the country (Harington 1909), although E W Oates (in 1909 Garden) brought back the demolition of four birds close to Mandalay, which suggests that the species could be regular in the zone. Although the last data goes back to 1910, there are rumours concerning the existence of a residual population in wetlands isolated from the north of the country (Scott 1989). Not confirmed data of small groups (4 to 5 birds) were deferred to the end of 1960 (U Tun Yin in litt. W B King, BirdLife; Kear and Williams 1978), which lets suppose that the species could survive.
Officially listed data:
- Myitkyina, not dated (Harington 1909a), close to the village of Talawgyi;
- Not far from Myitkyina, where two birds resembling the illustrations would have been seen during winter 1998/1999 (of close U Tun Yin, a local hunter);
- Bhamo, not dated (Blyth 1875, Smythies 1986);
- Koolay, close to Singu, district of Mandalay: a female in December 1908 (specimen with the BNHS, Gardens 1909);
- In the area of Mandalay: 4 cut down, given not dated (1909 Garden);
- a male in February 1910 (bought with the bazaar of Mandalay);
- in Arakan, not dated (Blyth 1875, Smythies 1986);

In captivity in France

Ducks with pink head were held in captivity in France (Park of Clères, Normandy) and in the United Kingdom since 1925. The person in charge for the park of Clères explains that certain birds lived more than 12 years, making many parades, without never trying to nest (Delacour 1954-1964).
The last bird in captivity died in 1945, in Foxwarren Park (the United Kingdom).

www.ornithomedia.com/magazine/mag_art205_1.htm

[Peter]

The IUCN Red List has listed this species since the 2004 list as Critically Endangered - Possibly Extinct! (My website however will keep it listed as extinct until there is proof of its rediscovery! And hopefully that will come!)

2004
Assessor/s: BirdLife International
Evaluator/s: Tobias, J., Crosby, M., Peet, N., Collar, N., Benstead, P. & Butchart, S. (BirdLife International Red List Authority)

Justification: This species has not been seen in the wild since 1949; it was always considered rare, and may have been driven extinct by a combination of hunting and habitat loss. However, it cannot yet be presumed to be Extinct until remote wetlands in northern Myanmar have been surveyed. Any remaining population is likely to be tiny, and for these reasons it is treated as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct).

www.redlist.org/search/details.php?species=19675

[Peter]

And BirdLife international:

Recent "sightings" and positive leads from a series of questionnaires about its possible continued existence in north-east India were the result of confusion with Red-crested Pochard (Netta rufina). Hopes remain that it may be rediscovered in remote wetlands in northern Myanmar. Its extinction cannot be confirmed until this part of its former range has been surveyed.

[sebbe67]

In 1998, WWT supported an expedition to Tibet by Peter Gladstone and Charles Martell from the UK. Tibetan Government Forestry Department staff had reported Pink-headed Ducks surviving in a remote region to the north of Bhutan

[sebbe67]

Between 29 November and 16 December 2004 a team from BirdLife International and a local non-government organisation the Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA), undertook a survey of wetlands in northern Myanmar as part of an ongoing project funded by the UK Government's Darwin Initiative. This project has as an objective the identification of Important Bird Areas in the Eastern Himalayas Endemic Bird Area. One of the objectives of the survey was to search for the Pink-headed Duck a species considered Critically Endangered by BirdLife and IUCN and not observed in Myanmar since 1910.

During the survey team members had a possible but unconfirmed sighting of what may have been a Pink-headed Duck. Team members were unable to agree with 100% certainty and unanimity on the identification since the brief views were of a bird in flight, at a distance and in bright light.

BirdLife respects the experience and opinion of team members who are sure of the observation, and is extremely encouraged by the survey, but feels that the views were insufficient to state that this species is not extinct.

The location where the sighting occurred supports an extensive area of habitat which appears suitable for this species and the site is already nominally protected and is not currently threatened. BirdLife and BANCA will resume their survey of wetlands in this area to try and clarify the existence of the species later in 2005.

For a report on the recent survey of wetlands in Kachin State Myanmar please visit www.birdlifeindochina.org and follow links to the latest issue of the BirdLife in Indochina newsletter

[Melanie]

Here is one of the few photographes of living ducks

from the Foxwarren Park in the 1920s.

[sebbe67]

mmm thanks, I have never seen a picture on living individuals of this duck, just dead ones

[Melanie]

there are also two photographes in "Extinct Birds" by Errol Fuller. This one is from a German book.

[another specialist]

The last known specimen of this species died in captivity at the Foxwarren Park, England in 1924, and with this, the most beautiful of our resident ducks passed into oblivion; the stamp of extinction squarely affixed across its dark breast by man; man, whose ever increasing needs have made our planet Earth far too small to share with others.

The Pink-headed duck was fairly common up to about the 1880s. A poor table bird and thus not particularly sought after by sportsmen, its attractive plumage was one of the main causes of its disappearance. Highly valued as an ornamental bird, large numbers were netted round the year for sale in thriving Kolkata markets of that time. As this continued through successive breeding seasons, the population of this duck dwindled rapidly and by 1915 it was virtually extinct in the wild state. Further, large tracts of its marshy breeding grounds were rendered unsuitable as they were drained and cleared for cultivation.

The pink-headed duck had unique colouring. The male’s body varied from near black to dark brownish-black. The head and neck were a rich pink and the beak was fleshy pink. The female was similarly coloured though duller and had a dark beak. Weighing about a kilogramme, the bird had a slender build and a streamlined look. The head and the long neck were positively lean and carried swanlike in a backward curve when on land or on water. In flight it was easily identified by the long neck and soft shell-pink that tinged its entire under-wing.

Even in the nineteenth century, the pink-headed duck had a restricted area of distribution. As recorded by British ornithologists of that time, the bird certainly bred in suitable areas of north-eastern Bihar, upper West Bengal and Bangladesh, generally north of the Ganga and west of the Brahamaputra. Yet others believed that it also bred in nalas running through the Sal jungles north of Lakhimpur in Uttar Pradesh and also along the Brahamputra valley in Assam. The birds were seen in pairs during the breeding season that extended from about May to September. Thereafter, they formed small groups of six to ten. However, flocks of up to thirty birds were seen during winters when limited migration away from their breeding grounds took place.

The winter beat of the pink-headed duck extended up to Delhi in the west, Vishakhapatnam in the south, Indian and Nepal Terai in the north and possibly even to the narrow coastal belt west of the Arakan range, up to Akyab in Myanmar in the east. Essentially a bird of lakes and swamps, it was never seen on any river or on running shallow water. Overgrown with aquatic plants, swamps dense with growth of bulrushes, nalas and ponds hemmed in by overhanging foliage were its favourite, if not the only haunts. The nests were made of dry grass interspersed with a few feathers, about 9 inches in diameter, 4-5 inches in depth and circular in shape. These were placed in the centre of tufts of tall grass, well hidden and generally within about 400 metres of water. Five to ten perfectly round eggs that looked like unpolished billiard balls were laid in June-July. The bird did not breed in captivity.

In 1924 when the bird was officially declared extinct, some optimists believed that at least a few of these wary ducks had retreated to some inaccessible areas, away from man’s depredations. Unconfirmed reports of sightings in recent years of the pink-headed duck in Assam and also in Bihar give rise to hope that the bird may still be alive! If so, man must make amends by according it complete protection so that it may multiply once again into a stable breeding population.

If the pink-headed duck still lives, our best chance of finding it is in areas where suitable conditions to sustain this bird still exist. The foremost amongst these is the Brahamputra valley up to Dibrugarh and beyond to Sadiya. A tea executive claims to have seen a pair near a place called Deemu Charali in the Moran tea district north-east of Dibrugarh. Another suitable area that needs to be searched is the water body created through an engineering faux pas while building a railway embankment through the Madanpur Range of Valmiki Tiger Reserve. However, the brightest chances exist in the triangle bounded by Purnea--Malda--Bhagalpur. This area constituted their main breeding ground during the nineteenth century. The numerous marshes, nalas and pools of the Terai, choked with bulrushes and surrounded by thick impenetrable elephant grass may also have the potential to “produce” this bird during winter months, if it still exists.

There are examples in the conservation world where species believed to be extinct were rediscovered and their number revived through protection and other assistance rendered by man. Is a happy fairy tale ending like that of the white-winged wood duck, the Jerdon’s courser and the forest owlet possible in the case of the pink-headed duck, or is it lost to us forever?

www.wwfindia.org/newsletter/july/pink_headed.asp

[another specialist]

www.ornithomedia.com/magazine/mag_art205_1.htm

[another specialist]

www.kolkatabirds.com/pinkheadedduck8bg.jpg

[Melanie]

Pink-headed Duck
A much wanted trophy

The Pink-headed Duck Rhodonessa caryophyllacea ( Latham, 1790) once lived in inaccessible swamps of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers in northern India. It has always been considered rare, but this may have been due to the inaccessibility of its habitat. As the swamps became cultivated, this handsome duck was initially seen more frequently. However, reclamation of the swamps inevitably led to the decline of the species in the beginning of the 20th century. Its remarkable appearance made it a favoured hunting trophy, though this is probably not the main cause of its extinction. The British who governed the area found its meat far from tasty. The fast-growing local population may, however, have had a different opinion.


Pink-headed Duck.


The last specimen died far from home
As to the exact date of extinction, opinions vary from 1936 or 1939 to 1945. Most likely, the last Pink-headed Duck died far from its native swamps, in a British aviary. During the 1960's its presence was claimed near the Burmese-Tibetan border, but this may be based on misidentified Red-crested Pochards Netta rufina. In any case, the claim has not been substantiated.


Pink-headed Duck.
Photograph by Rosamond Purcell from Swift as a Shadow. © 1999.


The museum collection
The National Museum of Natural History possesses one male from India. Collector and collecting date are not known. Over 70 skins are preserved worldwide.

[Peter]

The BirdLife team will return to Burma in November 2005 for another attempt to find Pink-headed Duck.

The end of 2005 can be a very good one for major rediscoveries! Hopefully the Pink-headed Duck, as well the Caspian Tiger! For both animals a new survey will start then!

[Meakia'i]

It's 2006 already. Any word from the expeditions?

[Melanie]

the most current report can be found here: www.birdlifeindochina.org/report_pdfs/babbler_15.pdf (September 2005)

I think the survey is still going on and so we must have a little more patience.