White eyed pochard (ferrogenous duck)

White eyed pochard (ferrogenous duck)

Scientific name: Aythya nyroca
Situation in the wild: Not threatened
Situation in Israel: Critically Endangered. Maybe extinct as a nesting bird.
The White eyes pochard or Ferruginous duck is one of the smallest species of duck. It is characterized by white stripes on its wings and the bottom part of its abdomen is white too. The species is usually active at night and can dive to a depth of up to 10 meters. In the past, dozens or even hundreds of couples of the species nested in Israel, but destruction of wetland habitats and sealing of some of Israel's water reservoirs with plastic sheets, preventing the growth of water bank vegetation, have presumably cut short the nesting in Israel in recent years, harming the wintering population.
A first group of Ferruginous duck, captive born, has been brought to the Marsh aviary at the Jerusalem zoo. In 2010, nine chicks hatched at the breeding core established at the zoo. The success of the only breeding core in Israel and its increase have brought the zoo, together with the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority to study the option of releasing of the Ferruginous duck back to the wild, directly from the zoo. This action, together with habitat conservation efforts (including the zoo lake) and the prevention of hunting, will enable initiation of the rehabilitation of the population of this species in Israel. The first nine eggs hatched in 2010 and six of the ducklings survived. During November 2011, three of the young ducklings were released onto the Big Lake at the Jerusalem Zoo and the hope is they will fly away and start nesting in the Northern marshes. For the moment they seem happy by the Lake and you can recognize them by their small size, stripped wings, white bellies and pink nose-rings. Generally, all birds are banded for distance recognition and record keeping. Most are leg bands but this won’t work with ducks that have their legs in the water most of the time. The Zoo sent one of its keepers, Tal Romano, off to Portugal to a special nasal ring marking and tracking course held by Dr. David Rodrigues, the renowned Coordinator for duck nasal marking in Europe. Israel has been assigned PINK colored nose rings. Hopefully in the future, birders the world over will see a diving duck with a pink nasal ring and know it hatched in Israel. But now you can still see the three young ducks at the big Lake.

Photo: Michal Erez