Pathikaduchira, near Irinjalakuda Railway Station, attracts a lot of water birds, especially Lesser Whistling-Ducks Dendrocygna javanica whenever there is sufficient water in the wetland which has an extent of about 5 acres. I have been visiting this place for the last eight years in search of any rarities among the congregation of whistling-ducks particularly because late Prof. K. K. Neelakantan had mentioned about a probable sighting of Fulvous Whistling-Duck Dendrocygna bicolor in this area (Neelakantan et al. 1993).  On 23 March 2019, I visited this place once again and I could see around 1500 Lesser Whistling-Ducks, 200 Garganey Spatula querquedula and some other common waterbirds.

Among a group of 10 Lesser Whistling-Ducks, one bird looked different. It had white upper tail coverts and prominent white streaking on flanks. The photographs I took showed clearly that it was a Fulvous Whistling-Duck (https://ebird.org/india/view/checklist/S54129858). This is the second photographic record of this species in Kerala after the one from Alappuzha in 2017 (Sumesh, 2017).

References: 

Neelakantan, K. K., Sashikumar, C. and Venugopalan, R. (1993). A Book of Kerala Birds. Part 1. i–xxxii, 1–146. World Wide Fund for Nature-India, Kerala State Committee, Trivandrum.

Sumesh, P. B (2017). Fulvous Whistling Duck Dendrocygna bicolor – An addition to the Bird list of Kerala. Malabar Trogon 14(1- 3): 36-37.