Southern pochard
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
SPECIES
Netta erythrophthalma

The southern pochard (Netta erythrophthalma ) is a species of duck, and a member of the genus Netta. There are two subspecies, the South American (southern) pochard N. e. erythrophthalma (Wied-Neuwied, 1833) and the African (southern) pochard N. e. brunnea (Eyton, 1838).

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The South American pochard has a fragmented range and is found from Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina to Chile. Here it occurs in a wide variety of shallow fresh waters with submerged vegetation, from the lowlands up to 3,700 metres.

The African pochard occurs from the Cape to the Ethiopian highlands on water bodies with or without emergent vegetation. They are suspected to have been strong migrants in the past but the construction of numerous farm dams seems to allow them a more sedentary lifestyle. They reach highest concentrations in Africa's central plateaus and in the south-western winter rainfall region.

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Southern pochard habitat map
Southern pochard
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Habits and Lifestyle

Southern pochards are sociable and gregarious. They have been seen in groups of up to 5,000.

Seasonal behavior
Bird's call

Diet and Nutrition

Population

Population number

The southern pochard population has been steadily declining since the 1970s. In 2016, the number of southern pochards was reported at around 25,000 in Central America, but this could have been an overestimate due to a lack of data.

References

1. Southern pochard Wikipedia article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_pochard
2. Southern pochard on The IUCN Red List site - https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22680354/92857172
3. Xeno-canto bird call - https://xeno-canto.org/649360

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