tall and triangular head, Baer's pochard has a more rounded head and a flatter forehead. The white part on the belly extends to its flanks in Baer's pochard, which is visible when floating on the water, while the ferruginous duck has a smaller white part on its belly. The female Baer's pochard has a distinctly bright chestnut spot at the lore, which is absent in ferruginous duck. Baer's pochard is usually a quieter duck, but during its courtship display, both sexes give harsh graaaak. Females may give kura kura kura and males may give kuro kuro at other times. Distribution Baer's pochard traditionally bred in the Amur and Ussuri basins in Northeast China and the southeastern Russian Far East. In recent years, it has also colonised North China and Central China. It winters in most areas south of the Yellow River in China, Taiwan, Japan, Bangladesh, India, North Korea, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam, and occasionally appears in Bhutan, South Korea, Philippines or Pakistan as a rare vagrant. It leaves its wintering grounds by mid-March and returns to them by mid-October or early November. The species has become extremely rare in its traditional breeding areas, and since 2010, there have been no confirmed breeding reports in all sites north of Beijing. However, the numbers recorded during the breeding season are smaller than those recorded in winter, so there may still be unknown breeding sites. For example, there are some doubtful breeding reports in the Chinese part of Lake Khanka, the Russian part of Lake Khasan, and the . Since 2012, new breeding sites have been discovered in several provinces of China, including Hebei, Hubei and Jiangxi; the latter two cities are far from traditional breeding sites in the Amur and Ussuri basins. In these new breeding areas, warmer climate conditions provide a longer breeding season (about twice as long as in the Amur and Ussuri basins) which allows birds to lay a replacement clutch if their first clutch fails. Baer's pochard is no longer migratory in central and eastern China. The wintering grounds have also contracted significantly in recent years. Since at least the winter of 2010-2011, Baer's pochard no longer winters in any site outside mainland China, except as a . In its wintering grounds in mainland China, the population has also declined severely, by more than 99%. Behaviour and ecology Baer's pochard is a shy species, that