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Difference between revisions of "Common Pochard" - BirdForum Opus

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[[Image:SivkaM 6816MM.jpg|thumb|550px|right|Male<br />Photo by {{user|mikemik|mikemik}}  [[Slovenia,]] March, 2018]]
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[[Image:SivkaM 6816MM.jpg|thumb|550px|right|Male<br />Photo by {{user|mikemik|mikemik}}<br /> [[Slovenia]] March, 2018]]
 
;[[:Category:Aythya|Aythya]] ferina
 
;[[:Category:Aythya|Aythya]] ferina
 
==Identification==
 
==Identification==

Revision as of 11:26, 6 March 2018

Male
Photo by mikemik
Slovenia March, 2018
Aythya ferina

Identification

42–49 cm (16½-19¼ in), a mid-sized diving duck.
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

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

Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species[1].

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.

Behaviour

Diet

Female
Photo by targetman
Lincolnshire, June 2010

The diet consists of aquatic plants, seeds, roots of sedges and grasses; molluscs, aquatic insects and small fish, often feeding at night.

Vocalisation

<flashmp3>Aythya ferina (song).mp3</flashmp3>
Listen in an external program

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2016. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2016, with updates to August 2016. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved December 2016)

Recommended Citation

External Links


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