Habitat
In breeding season, small temporary and permanent inland freshwater lakes, preferring those that are shallow and nutrient-rich with extensive emergent vegetation which it relies for nesting, man-made habitats, such as small farm wetlands, and sewage-farm basins. In non-breeding season larger, deeper lakes and brackish lagoons.
Botswana (B) (NB), Congo [The Democratic Republic of the] (B) (NB), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa (B), Sudan (B) (NB), Tanzania [United Republic of], Uganda, Zimbabwe.
Vagrant to Angola, Burundi, Malawi, Swaziland.
Eastern Africa, from Ethiopia and eastern Sudan to northern Tanzania; southern Africa, from Namibia and Zimbabwe to Cape Province.
Population
Estimated population is 9,000 - 11,800 (2010) and decreasing.
Status VU
Habitat loss through drainage and conversion to agriculture, pollution, hunting and poaching, and competition with alien benthic fish, habitat alteration by introduced plants are the main threats.
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.
Habits
Pairs, small groups in breeding season. Flocks of up to 1000 individuals in non-breeding season.
Food
Primarily benthic invertebrates including fly larvae (Diptera), Tubifex worms, Daphnia eggs and small fresh-water molluscs. Also, algae, the seeds and roots of other aquatic plants.
Maccoa Duck (Oxyura maccoa) [XC434525]
by id from Grahamstown, Western District, Eastern Cape, South Africa (call, display call)
Maccoa Duck (Oxyura maccoa) [XC388325]
by Lynette Rudman from Langebaan Country Estate, Western Cape, South Africa (call, song)
Nest
Composed of reeds and cattails that have been bent down to form a basin, located over deep water among emergent vegetation. Old nests of Red-knobbed Coot (Fulica cristata) may sometimes be used. In single pairs or loose groups.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet