The Maccoa Duck Oxyura maccoa is a localised, relatively scarce species confined to Africa, with northern (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Eritrea) and southern (Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Lesotho) populations. Previous estimates of its population size, particularly northern populations, were not based on hard data. These reports gave an impression that this species was far more numerous than the actual situation. Similarly, its distribution was described as including several countries for which there were either no records, or very few, giving a false impression of a wider distribution.