The Ferruginous Duck is a diving duck, closely related to Common Pochard. Ferruginous Ducks inhabit fresh water ponds and lakes with a meter of more depth. It feeds on algae but also on small invertebrates that captures by diving, sometimes at night.
Despite the range of the species strenghts in most of Eurasia, it is considered as a Near Endangered bird because of the steadly lost of population in the last decades. In Europe, the most of the population is to be found in Romania (>4.000 pairs), Croatia (>2.000) where inhabits shallow and eutrophic ponds and lakes (less common in temporary marshes) but especially, fishponds. No more than 30.000 pairs of this birds are left in the wild. The Asian population is suposed to be the largest, but there is no data about its current situation.
In Western Mediterranean is a really scarce bird. Less than 10 pairs are actually nesting in Spain and, despite some new birds are now nesting in Switzerland and France, the population for all the area is still really small.
With this data we can all consider as a wonderful new the found of one pair nesting in Utxesa, the major inland wetland in Catalonia. This wetland, located in the middle of the impressive steppe land area known as Lleida Steppes, is hosting some locally endangered birds such as the Bearded Tit (the species was colonizating this spot in 2008), the Moustached Warbler and the highly endangered Reed Bunting North-Eastern Iberian race (Emberiza schoeniclus whiterbii).
The pair of Ferruginous Ducks were first found on April, and relocated on 4th June by Sergi Sales while monitoring the endangered birds living in the dump. The Ferruginous Ducks are nesting by the main channel arriving to the dump, in an area of eutrophic water, as they prefer. This is the first nesting pair in the country in the last 50 years, since the last record of Ferruginous Ducks nesting in Catalonia was in 1962, when a pair was found in Ebro Delta.
In Catalonia, the species is considered a scarce winter and migratory bird. Some hybridation with Common Pochards have been noticed in the last years in the country (Llobregat Delta) what can indicate the presence of some sparse individuals in the country. In 2008-11, 1-2 pairs were nesting in the Marjal del Moro wetlands, some 130 kilometres South of Ebro Delta.
It is a great new! A new that is to focus us on how big the potential of our wetlands would be with a even acurate management and how long is the way to understand the ecological requirements of all different wildlife living on them.
