Cotton Pygmy Goose

How to identify

Field marks

1. Male has a dark brown forehead and crown, with a broad black-green collar at the base of the neck
2. Sides of head and neck white
3. Back, wing coverts and scapulars dark brown with a green and purple metallic gloss
4. Bill short and goose-like, deeper at the base

Male, female and young

Female has a darker crown and rufous eyestripe, without a black collar; male in the non-breeding season resembles female, but has a broader white wing-bar.

Voice

Low quacking calls.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: December–February · Most records: India, Australia, Cambodia

Cotton Pygmy Goose has been recorded at 447 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 25 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Changaram Wetlands – EzhupunnaIndia2,482 records
2. Kanha NP – Mukki ZoneIndia1,477 records
3. Bharatpur – Keoladeo Ghana NPIndia1,423 records

Countries and regions with the most records

IndiaAustraliaCambodiaThailandChinaSri LankaNepalVietnam

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The cotton pygmy goose or cotton teal (Nettapus coromandelianus) is a small perching duck which breeds in South and Southeast Asia extending to Queensland in Australia where they are sometimes called white-quilled pygmy goose. They are among the smallest waterfowl in the world and are found in small to large waterbodies with good aquatic vegetation. They are usually seen in pairs or larger groups of pairs, roosting and nesting on trees near water.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions