Laysan Duck

No waterfowl has a smaller world range than the Laysan Duck (Anas laysanensis), which survives only on Laysan Island and Midway Atoll in the north-western Hawaiian chain. It is a small dabbling duck, mottled and streaked buff and dark brown, with a white eye-ring standing out against a dark face - reduced in females - and an iridescent speculum. Birds concentrate around a central hypersaline lagoon and its fringing vegetation, taking brine shrimp and brine flies from the lagoon margin. Clutches hold nine to thirteen eggs. The population fell to single figures in the early twentieth century before recovering, and the IUCN Red List still classifies the species as Critically Endangered.