Pink-headed Duck
A duck with a head like a flamingo — no confirmed sighting in over 75 years
No confirmed photograph exists
Location
Terai grasslands and swamps, India and Myanmar
Overview
The pink-headed duck had one of the most startling appearances of any waterbird: the male's entire head was a deep salmon-pink, fading to a pale pink-white neck, contrasting with its dark brown body. It lived in the dense, tall-grass swamps of the Indian subcontinent and Myanmar delta — habitat that has been almost entirely drained, burned, or converted to agriculture. The last captive specimen died in 1936. Unverified reports from hunters and local communities continued into the 1940s, with the last credible sighting recorded in 1949. No confirmed photograph of a living wild bird exists.
Why haven't we found it?
Northern Myanmar's remote Kachin State contains large areas of flooded grassland and swamp forest that have rarely been surveyed by ornithologists. The pink-headed duck was always shy, solitary, and active at dusk — conditions that made it easy to miss even when it was common. Multiple expeditions since 2000 have returned without confirmation, but the habitat is vast and the target is a bird that was notoriously difficult to observe even when it was known to be present.
Reasons to keep looking
- 1
A 2017 expedition to Kachin State's remote swamp forests found habitat that appeared suitable and ecologically intact. Local hunters interviewed during the survey described large pink-headed waterfowl within living memory.
- 2
The IUCN lists the species as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct) rather than Extinct — a deliberate distinction reflecting that no comprehensive search of the remaining habitat has ever been completed.
- 3
A 2006 report by wildlife researcher Niall Moores documented what appeared to be three pink-headed ducks on a survey in Myanmar, though the sighting could not be confirmed to the standard required for a formal record.
Things worth knowing
- 1
The pink colouration extended to the bill and eyes as well as the entire head — a combination so unusual that early naturalists assumed the first specimens were artificially dyed. It took multiple confirmed wild sightings before the colour was accepted as real.
- 2
It was kept in captivity in small numbers in British India and in European zoos in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The last known captive individual died at Foxwarren Park in Surrey in 1936.
- 3
Unlike most ducks, which nest in reed beds or on the ground, the pink-headed duck was reported to nest in dense stands of tall elephant grass several feet above the ground — a nesting behaviour unusual enough that early accounts were doubted.
- 4
The species was never common even during the colonial period. Records from the 19th century describe it as local and scarce, suggesting it may have been naturally rare rather than recently abundant before its decline.
- 5
It belongs to its own genus, Rhodonessa, and its closest relative is the red-crested pochard. Its evolutionary isolation means its loss would remove an entire branch of the duck family tree with no surviving relatives.