page_title: Madagascan pochard
section_title: Taxonomy
hierarchical_section_title: Madagascan pochard / Taxonomy
caption_attribution_description: Nyroca innotata = Aythya innotata, Madagascar Pochard
context_page_description: The Madagascan pochard or Madagascar pochard 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. The species was reintroduced to the wild in December 2018.
  The Madagascan pochard feeds mainly on aquatic insects, unlike other diving ducks in the same genus, Aythya. Ducklings begin making short dives at around 14 days old, before which they feed on the surface.
context_section_description: The Madagascan pochard was largely overlooked by scientists in the 19th century, as those that saw it assumed they were seeing ferruginous ducks instead. Even after its description in 1894 little notice was taken of the species, and even numbers are hard to gauge from early accounts of the species. 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 Madagascan pochard is generally thought to be closely related to the Hardhead, Baer's pochard and ferruginous duck. It is monotypic, having no described or known subspecies.
caption: The Madagascan pochard in the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Volume 27, 1895.
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