The Czech Society for Ornithology has announced that the Bird of the Year for 2023 is the common pochard. A common type of duck in this part of the world, its population has dropped by a third over the past 30 years.
The common pochard is the second most common duck in Czechia after the mallard and can be seen on ponds and lakes across the country.
In recent decades, however, its populations have been dwindling, not only here in Czechia, but also elsewhere in the world.
To raise awareness of the problem, the Czech Society for Ornithology decided to name the common pochard 2023’s Bird of the Year, says ornithologist Petr Voříšek:
“It’s a flagship species for the problems we are facing with wetlands. It helps us to indicate and to understand what is going on with the wetlands.
“The other reason is that the species itself is threatened. Since 2015, it has been listed on the IUCN’s global red list of threatened species. So the species itself deserves conservationists’ attention.”
See the rest here.
Author: Ruth Fraňková