About Netta erythrophthalma (Wied-Neuwied, 1833)
The southern pochard, with the scientific name Netta erythrophthalma, is a duck species that belongs to the genus Netta. There are two subspecies: the South American (southern) pochard N. e. erythrophthalma (Wied-Neuwied, 1833), and the African (southern) pochard N. e. brunnea (Eyton, 1838). The South American pochard has a fragmented range, found from Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina to Chile. In this region it occurs in a wide variety of shallow fresh waters with submerged vegetation, from the lowlands up to 3,700 metres. The African pochard occurs from the Cape to the Ethiopian highlands on water bodies that may have either emergent vegetation or no emergent vegetation. These ducks are suspected to have been strong migrants in the past, but the construction of numerous farm dams appears to allow them a more sedentary lifestyle. They reach their highest concentrations in Africa's central plateaus and in the south-western winter rainfall region.
