: MISCELLANEOUS NOTES A RECENT OBSERVATION OF WHITE-HEADED DUCK OXYURA LEUCOCEPHALA 5. AT GAJALDOBA BARRAGE, WEST BENGAL, INDIA 1 Mathias Ritschard2andAndreasTaschler3 'AcceptedOctober03,2006 2Max PlanckInstituteforOrnithology, Eberhard-Gwinner-Strasse, 82319Seewiesen,Germany.Email: [email protected] Lfohannisbergstrasse8, 8645Jona,Switzerland. Email: [email protected] On February 03, 2006, while scanningafew thousand tailedSea-EagleHaliaeetusalbicilla. waterbirdsattheGajaldobaBarrage,Jalpaiguridistrict.West Bengal, India, we observed a female White-headed Duck Discussion Oxyura leucocephala, loosely associatedwith alargemixed TheWhite-headed Duck is distributed in CentralAsia groupofanatids (mostly the CommonTealAnascrecca and and some parts of Europe. It is globally threatened and theGadwallAnasstrepera,withsmallernumberofNorthern classifiedasEndangeredbyBirdLifeInternationalandIUCN Shoveller Anas clypeata, Northern Pintail Anas acuta (BirdLife International 2006). Its world population has , EurasianWigeonAnaspenelope,MallardAnasplatyrhynchos. decreased from probably over 100,000 individuals in the Falcated Duck Anasfalcata, Red-crested Pochard Netta early 20th century to an estimated 19.000 in 1991, and has rufina Tufted Pochard Aythyafuligula Common Pochard probably declined to less than 10,000 since (BirdLife , , AythyaferinaandFerruginous PochardAythya nyroca).The International 2006). Main threats include the habitat loss in birdwaseasily identifiedby itstypical shape withalongtail CentralAsia, where approximately 50% ofbreeding habitat heldinuprightposition,alargeheadandswollen-basedbill, hasbeendrainedduringthe20lhcentury,pollutionandrecent its uniformly rufous-brown body and the black and white droughts in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (BirdLife head pattern. Sex identification was based on the extensive International2006).IntheIndiansubcontinent,thewintering blackcapreaching below the eye, off-white face with broad populationoftheWhite-headed Duckis mainlyrestrictedto darkcheek-stripe andblackish bill. Pakistan, where the numberhasdroppedfrom 1,039birds in Most of the time the White-headed Duck was not 1968 toonly 5-33 between2002 and2004 (Li and Mundkur closely associated with other ducks but was observed 2003;ZulfiqarandAkhtar2005; BirdLifeInternational2006). swimming around busily in open water at the edge of the In India, the species is now very rarely recorded with only flock near to the dam. Although the bird was very active, it two observations since 1980: single birds at Harike Lake, did not seem to be in a sound health condition as it was Punjab,in 1984, andatAmakherawetland,UttarPradesh, in continuously opening its bill, giving the impression that it 1997 (Li and Mundkur2003). The present record ofWhite- hadrespiratory problems. headedDuckfromGajaldobaBarrageisfareastfromitsusual Gajaldoba Barrage is an artifical wetland created by occurence in SouthAsia. However, there are old specimens retainingthewaterofTeestariver.Itisanimportantwintering fromCalcuttamarket.WestBengal, which havepresumably and stopover site for migratory ducks and shorebirds, and beentakennearby(RasmussenandAnderton2005).InChina, has a considerable potential of attracting rare birds. Other wherethespeciesisveryrare,singlebirdshavebeenobserved significantspecieswhichwereobservedduringtwovisitson as far east as Hunan and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous January 15andFebruary03,includedtheBlack-neckedGrebe Region(LiandMundkur2003).Theserecords,aswellasthe Podicepsnigricollis theCommonShelduckTadomatadoma recentobservationfromGajaldobaBarrage,mostlikelyrefer , , theCommonGoldeneyeBucephalaclangulaandtheWhite- to vagrants. REFERENCES BirdLifeInternational(2006): Oxyuraleucocephala.In:IUCN2006. Rasmussen, RC. & J.C. Anderton (2005): Birds ofSouth Asia. The 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Ripley Guide. Vol. 1: 68. Smithsonian Institution and Lynx <www.iucnredlist.org>. Edicions,WashingtonD.C. andBarcelona. Li,Z.W.D.&T.Mundkur(2003):Statusoverviewandrecommendations Zulfiqar, A. & M. Akhtar (2005): Bird surveys at wetlands in forconservationoftheWhite-headedDuckOxyuraleucocephala Punjab, Pakistan, with special reference to the present inCentralAsia.WetlandsInternationalGlobalSeries 15,Kuala statusofWhite-headedDuckOxyuraleucocephala.Forktail21 Lumpur, Malaysia. 43-50. 1 Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 105 (1), Jan-Apr 2008 95