Madagascan pochard Madagascan pochard The Madagascan pochard or Madagascar pochard ("Aythya innotata"; ) is an extremely rare diving duck of the genus "Aythya". Thought to be extinct in the late 1990s, specimens of the species were rediscovered at Lake Matsaborimena in Madagascar in 2006. As of Fall 2017, the population is around 90 individuals. Based on the accounts written by Webb and Delacour's in the 1920s and 1930s it seemed that the bird was still relatively common at Lake Alaotra. The duck probably started to decline dramatically sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s. The cause of decline was the introduction
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