Masked Finfoot
Heliopais personatus
A bizarre bird that loosely resembles a cormorant with a hornbill’s brightly-colored beak. Gray-brown overall with a black mask extending from the face down to the throat that is darker and more extensive in males. A reclusive species, typically encountered at dawn or dusk, skulking in well-vegetated waterways such as mangroves, swamps, and shaded rivers. Gives a loud odd bubbling call followed by an amphibian-like series of clucks.
Identification
The masked finfoot is an underwater specialist with a long neck, a striking sharp beak, and lobed feet which are green. Both males and females have a black mask and eyebrow that contrasts with a white eyering and lateral cervical stripe. The rest of the neck is grey, the breast is pale and the back, wings, and tail are a rich brown. The males have an all-black chin while the females have a white chin.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Heliopais personatus
- Authority
- (Gray, GR, 1849)
- Order
- Gruiformes
- Family
- Heliornithidae
- Genus
- Heliopais
Range and habitat
- Breeding range
- OR : ne India and se Asia
- Non-breeding range
- rare to Sumatra and Borneo
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
The masked finfoot was formerly considered endangered and declining with fragmented populations and fewer than 600-1,700 individuals in 2009, but a 2020 study in Forktail found the population to likely be between 100-300, far lower than the previous estimate. This likely indicates that the species should be updated to critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, and major steps towards its protection have to be taken to avoid it becoming Asia's next avian extinction. Definitive breeding populations are only known from 4 sites in Bangladesh and Cambodia, with potential breeding populations at 6 possible sites in Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam; the species has likely been extirpated from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. Major threats to the species are human disturbance and habitat loss in the low-lying forested wetlands that it inhabits. The bird is protected in Malaysia.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
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