Baer's pochard females of Baer's pochard and the ferruginous duck are quite similar, but that holds true for the females of almost all "Aythya" species. Eclipse males resemble females, but retain the white eye. Formerly classified as a vulnerable species by the IUCN, recent research shows that its numbers are decreasing more and more rapidly. It was consequently uplisted to endangered status in 2008. In 2012, it was further uplisted to critically endangered. Between 1987 and 2007, there were only eleven reports of groups of 100+ birds in mainland China. A recent census by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) China of Hubei province
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