White-winged Wood Duck: An Icon of Forest Pools

Sighting two majestic birds flying over the dark, green forests in Assam’s Sonai Rupai sanctuary enervated us. We had been walking for many kilometres in search of grassland birds in oppressive, sultry weather. I was with Taksh Sangwan, a young budding ornithologist, on a survey of grassland birds in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh under a project funded by BirdLife International to BNHS. Sonai Rupai has extensive grasslands. This is the same grassland where 16 captive-bred pygmy hogs were released in 2008. We did not see our targeted grassland birds, but we saw two white-winged ducks (earlier known as white-winged wood ducks). Watching them flying gracefully, their soft wings beating against a setting sun and the landscape of grassland-forest made our day. I had seen the species earlier, but for Taksh it was a lifer (first time), so he was elated. Non-birders cannot appreciate the electrifying moment of seeing a lifer, particularly a bird as rare as the white-winged duck.

Though now often called by the shorter name, white-winged duck (Asarcornis scutulata) I prefer the older name. Dr Anwaruddin Choudhury, one of the most prominent conservationists of India and a prolific writer, argued in a letter published in BirdingAsia (33:8-9, 2020) to keep the longer name for many reasons. The longer name is listed in the Indian Wildlife Protection Act and the Assam Gazette notification of 2003 when it was declared the state bird of Assam. Additionally, it has the habit of sitting on the boughs of large trees and nesting in holes in old trees. By using the word “wood” we emphasise that woodlands are important for this declining species.

Geographic distribution

There appear to be two subspecies: the whiter A. scutulata leucoptera from Indonesia, and A. s. scutulata from other parts of its range (India, Myanmar and other countries).

The white-winged wood duck is found from Northeast India to Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, to western Indonesia), in three distinct populations: India–Myanmar (breeding in India and Myanmar, extinct in Bangladesh); Southeast Asia (breeding in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam), and Western Indonesia (breeding in Sumatra).

Considering poaching and logging pressures on the bird, it is probably extinct in Laos and Vietnam, and survives in extremely low numbers in Cambodia. The largest population is supposed to exist in India-Myanmar (450-500) and Indonesia (about 150). Possibly 1,000 individuals survive in the whole world. No one knows for sure, as no systematic field survey has been done in its entire range. IUCN and BirdLife International have listed it as “Endangered”.

Habitat

Unlike most ducks that inhabit open wetlands and marshes, the white-winged wood duck is a bird of small shallow pools in thick tropical lowland forests. All over the world, lowland forests are the first to disappear under the plough. The same has happened in India. Historically, the bird was reported from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Manipur, with unconfirmed reports from Tripura and Mizoram. Now we have reports only from Assam and Arunachal. In his book, Birds of Assam (2000), Dr Choudhury mentions records from 36 localities. But now, we only have confirmed records from Manas, Nameri, Tinsukia and Sonai-Rupai.

Dibru-Saikhowa National Park in Dibrugarh was mainly established to protect the white-winged wood duck, but it is now probably extinct in this park. During my three visits to the park, I could not find any, nor has anyone seen it there in the last 10-15 years.

According to Dr Choudhury, and Rathin Barman of Aaranyak (an active conservation organisation in Assam), its decline is largely attributable to the destruction, degradation and disturbance of riverine habitats, including loss of riparian forest corridors. The resultant small, fragmented populations are vulnerable to extinction from environmental events, loss of genetic variability, disturbance, hunting and collection of eggs and chicks for food or pets. Hydel power projects, inappropriate forest management, and pollution are more localised threats. The birds may be particularly susceptible due to loss of large trees with nesting holes.

Except for the work of Anwaruddin Choudhury and Rathin Barman, not much research has been done on this neglected species. In 2018, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), a very active conservation NGO based in Delhi, took the initiative to develop a white-winged wood duck recovery project, with the help of experts, the Assam Forest Department and local NGOs. The initiative was named “Project Deo Hanh”, after the duck’s local name, deo hanh (spirit duck) as it is locally considered the “spirit” of the forest. A planning workshop followed by a year-long survey and follow-up meetings took place. During WTI-initiated surveys, 24 white-winged wood ducks were sighted from three forest areas of Assam: Nameri National Park, Upper Dehing (West Block) Reserve Forest, and Doomdooma-Dangori Reserve Forest. Breeding sites were confirmed only in Nameri. It was estimated that between 100 and 150 individuals may be present in India, with most of the population in the Nameri-Pakke landscape, the Dehing Patkai–Upper Dehing-Jeypore landscape, and a small population in Manas National Park, Namdapha Tiger Reserve, Doomdooma-Dangori Reserve Forest. Not a very comfortable situation, but the species can be saved if its lowland forest habitat is protected and poaching strictly controlled. The WTI report has also given many other recommendations.

A study conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India, Assam University Silchar, Aaranyak, AVC College, and Zoological Society of London, entitled “The impact of climate change and potential distribution of the endangered white-winged wood duck (Asarcornis scutulata, 1882) in Indian eastern Himalaya”, published in 2022 in the Journal of Nature Conservation found that by 2070, about 436 sq km of the bird’s potential habitat would be lost. The species occurs mostly in areas with an annual average temperature range of 22 to 30 degrees C and annual precipitation of 1,000–1,200 mm. However, the potential distribution will likely decline in every state under global climate change except Meghalaya. These days it is easy to blame everything on climate change without accepting that we have to “change” and develop greater respect for all living creatures on this planet. They have as much of a right to exist, live, and prosper as us.

But once these birds are lost, we cannot do anything. Extinction is forever. In 1935, one of the last pink-headed ducks was trapped somewhere near Dharbhanga in Bihar. Since that time, no one has seen them, despite many searches by BNHS in the 1950s and 1960s. Perhaps a few have survived in the remote jungles of Myanmar, but political strife does not allow surveys there. The pink-headed duck was once widespread in north India, and there are about 80 specimens in the world’s museums and many accounts of humans shooting them in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. Even in the 1940s, there were two captive populations in France, but they were neglected during the Second World War, sealing the species’ fate. We have no reason to let the white-winged duck meet the same fate and fade out of our country in the same way.