From Opus

Male
Photo by redwing

Aythya ferina

[edit] Identification

Mid-sized diving duck. 48cm
Adult Male

• Chestnut red head
• Black bill with light stripe
• Light grey body
• Black chest, vent, tail and rump
  

Female

• Dull brown/grey
• Richer brown head
  • Pale markings at base of bill and around eye

Female
Photo by postcardcv

[edit] Distribution

Breeds in western Europe from the British Isles and France east to Central Europe and more continuously from the shores of the Baltic and eastern Europe east across Asia south of the tundra to Mongolia and western China. Small numbers breed outside main range in Iceland, Spain, Italy and Greece, in Turkey and in Hokkaido, Japan.

A summer visitor to northernmost parts of range. Winters throughout the British Isles and western Europe, around the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas, in India, southern China and Japan. Small numbers winter in sub-Saharan Africa.

Vagrants recorded the Faroes, Azores, Madeira; Canary Islands and Cape Verde Islands, Gambia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines, Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands.

Male
Photo by Chalky W
Somerset, UK, April 2010

[edit] Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species^[1].

[edit] Habitat

Usually breeds on medium-large, fairly deep freshwaters with some marginal vegetation. On passage and in winter often on larger, more open waters, particularly reservoirs and gravel-pits, also estuaries and sometimes on sheltered seas.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

Female
Photo by targetman
Lincolnshire, June 2010

The diet includes aquatic plants, molluscs, aquatic insects and small fish, often feeding at night.

[edit] Vocalisation

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2010. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2010. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/Clements%206.5.xls/view

• List of references

[edit] External Links