Knob-billed Duck

Sarkidiornis anatoides

Beak

—

Feet

—

Crest

No crest

Resident. Widespread in India, also Nepal lowlands and Bangladesh. Whitish head, speckled with black, and whitish underparts with incomplete narrow breast-band. Upperwing and underwing blackish. Male has blackish upperparts glossed with bronze. blue and green. with fleshy 'comb' at base of bill and yellowish-buff wash to sides of head and neck in summer; comb much reduced in winter. Female much smaller with duller upperparts and no comb. Juvenile has pale supercilium contrasting with dark crown and eye-stripe, buff scaling on upperparts, and rutous-buff underparts with dark scaling on sides of breast. Grazes in marshes and wet grassland, also dabbles in shallows. Lowland pools and lakes in well - wooded country.