Plight of the Pochard

A Male Pochard (A. ferina)

The Common Pochard (Aythya ferina) is winter visitor that is familiar to many. They are a diving duck, closely related to the Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) and the Greater Scaup (Aythya marila). Males have a rufous head and grey back, the female has a brownish head and patchy grey body. The diet consists mainly of aquatic vegetation and invertebrates. Pochard live in habitats with well-vegetated marshes, lakes or slow-flowing rivers combined with areas of open water.  

In the U.K there are around 38000 wintering individuals. Ringing recoveries have shown that these birds come mostly from eastern Europe and Russia. Some U.K ringed birds have even been re-found in eastern Siberia; showing just how far some individuals journey to reach us. Birds will depart our shores from late February with the breeding grounds reoccupied from early March in the south becoming progressively later the further north they breed, with the Siberian breeding grounds being reached in early May. There is also a small resident breeding population in the U.K of around 500 pairs. 

Unfortunately the numbers of Pochard have declined rapidly in recent years. There has been a 21% contraction in wintering range within the U.K, which is reflected in an overall decrease in numbers (the largest drop in numbers being 76% in Northern Ireland). This is not just restricted to the U.K; across the whole of its range the Pochard is declining. These changes in population status have resulted in the IUCN upgrading the species threat level from ‘least concern’ to ‘vulnerable’.

We currently have no clear idea as to what is driving this decline. There are a range of threats known to effect Common Pochard. These include: disturbance, urban development, habitat destruction and agricultural run-off into water. Furthermore adults can be poisoned from ingesting lead shot and drowning in fishing nets. If this wasn't bad enough they are also hunted in   several countries across their range. Regardless of the specific factor (or combination of factors) the decline will be due to a decline in either survival or productivity (i.e. more birds are dying or less young are being produced). 

Female Pochard

The first step is to identify which of these factors is causing the decline. One way to do this is to look at the survival of females, as it is possible that this is an important factor in these population changes. Pochard exhibit differences in wintering grounds based on sex; something shown by many wildfowl species. This occurs as the more dominant males leave the breeding ground first essentially ‘filling-up’ the suitable habitat further north first. This means when the less dominant females come to migrate they have to travel further to reach areas that can sustain them. Consequently the more strenuous migration of the females, plus the increased predation rate whilst incubating mean that the population sex ratio becomes skewed towards more males; despite it being almost exactly equal upon hatching. 

Thankfully there is hope for the Common Pochard. Things are being done to help understand why it is declining and to reverse it. One key piece of this effort is undertaking a widespread count of all Pochard across the European and African wintering grounds. This will look at numbers of birds as well as the ratio of males to females on the wintering grounds across the whole wintering area. As well as looking at distribution of birds these counts can give a basic idea of how the population is changing.

This project is really easy to get involved with. All you need to do is find somewhere that Pochards winter and count them in at some point in January 2016. Once you have done this submit your findings here. You can carry out counts at as many sights as you want to, wherever they are. I am going to Tenerife in January on a field trip and I will definitely be keeping my eyes out for any Pochard. 

Getting involved with this gives you an easy opportunity to contribute to a project that is helping to protect and conserve this special duck.

More information about Pochards and the project can be found here. The link also has more information about where and how to undertake the counts.