Baer's pochard Baer's pochard Baer's pochard ("Aythya baeri") is a diving duck found in eastern Asia. It breeds in southeast Russia and northeast China, migrating in winter to southern China, Vietnam, Japan, and India. The name commemorates the Estonian naturalist Karl Ernst von Baer. At , it is similar in size and stance to its close relative, the ferruginous duck ("A. nyroca"), although the coloration of the drakes (males) is entirely different. Baer's pochard males are similar to those of the greater scaup ("A. marila"), but have a dark back and upper flanks; the white lower flanks and belly are conspicuous. The
What Bird is That? all-time best seller in Australian natural history and is still in print today. While sales and stature of Cayley’s original collection continued to grow, the prolific artist and ornothologist Cayley was working on a much more ambitious project – his so-called “big bird book”. From about 1918, he was creating illustrations of subspecies, plumage stages and eggs (now lost) of all known Australian birds. The project was incomplete at the time of his death in 1950, although the illustrations were all but finished. The ornithologist Terence Lindsey revived Cayley’s plans in the 1980s, creating the last and most significant revision