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Two Red-crested Pochard Pairs Produced Five Chicks in Tunisia’s First Confirmed Breeding Record

Male and female red-crested pochard swimming together
Research · Reproduction & development

Two pairs of red-crested pochard (Netta rufina) bred at Khniss wetland in 2025, providing the first confirmed nesting record of the species in Tunisia. The observation was published in 2026 after monitoring began when two adult males in breeding plumage were photographed there on 2 May 2025.

Researchers revisited the wetland at roughly ten-day intervals from May to July and confirmed two pairs. The males were observed making patrol flights around the two nest sites while the females incubated. Both families were first seen after hatching on 25 May: one had three chicks and the other two. The young from both families were recorded as fledging at about the same time around 20 July.

Khniss is a roughly 12 km² wetland near Monastir with open permanent water, seasonally flooded areas, islets and dense wetland vegetation. The authors note that red-crested pochards had previously been recorded in Tunisia mainly during winter and migration, with 11 non-breeding records between 1972 and 2023. They suggest that the recent breeding records in Tunisia and nearby eastern Algeria could reflect either a modest population increase or improved observation coverage, while their simultaneous appearance may also indicate a possible expansion of the breeding range.

Sources and image credit

  1. Hamza, F., Dlensi, H., & Chokri, M.-A. (2026). Première nidification confirmée de la Nette rousse (Netta rufina) en Tunisie. Go-South Bulletin, 23, 7–11.Primary bulletin note posted 25 May 2026. Two Red-crested Pochard pairs bred at Khniss wetland in 2025, producing three and two chicks respectively; both families were first seen after hatching on 25 May and the young fledged around 20 July. The authors describe this as the first confirmed breeding record for the species in Tunisia.

Image: Godbolemandar / Wikimedia Commons — male and female Red-crested Pochard photographed together in Keoladeo Ghana National Park, India, 21 December 2015; representative pair, not the breeding birds from Khniss · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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