bufflehead

This is a female showing a single white cheek patch and a small white square wing patch which is often hidden on swimming birds. This small diving duck is endemic to North America but vagrants sometimes show up in Europe and Asia. They are winter visitors to our area from breeding grounds in...

Bufflehead Pair with male showing his beautiful colours

Buffleheads are numerous this year in the Chesapeake Bay, and it's not hard to get close. This tail entering the water shot isn't uncommon, but I liked the colors and the water droplets.

American Wigeon (Mareca americana) male and Gadwall (Mareca strepera)) male. A female Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) in the water.

Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) Male.

Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) Female. Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Chambers County, Texas, USA. Gulf Coast Prairies and Marshes Vegetational Area. Shoveler pond.

Taken at the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, Arrowhead Marsh (Oakland, CA, USA). While I think the buffleheads are beautiful (especially the males), I'm a sucker for the female Common Goldeneyes and their complex pattern.

Taken near the Sundial Bridge (Redding, CA, USA). We've seen these so incredibly rarely local to our home. Where male buffleheads seem impossible to get a good photo of with my camera because of their reflective white feathers, the females are tough for completely opposite reasons: so much...

I went to a reservoir to see eagles, but saw this guy instead.

This one lady Bufflehead was quite cooperative and swam close to the viewing platform.

Loads of ducks use the refuge as a winter home. They were a bit late arriving this year, though, so not quite so many species as usual, or at least not the usual density. You had to take group tours that went off the main loop route to see the rarer ones, like the Hooded Mergansers. I saw those...

Taken at the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline at about 20m. I am still trying to get good photos of a Bufflehead. Caught this "duckbutt" shot while experimenting with higher shutter speeds on my camera. He was bathing, frantic flapping, and generally tough to photograph. But...

Found this lone bufflehead while driving along a creek. He watched me for a long time as I waited for him to come out of the deep shade and when he hit the sunlight he took off.

Taken at the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline at about 28m. Ah, the elusive Bufflehead...always disappearing just as I take a photo, always far away, and always with those reflective white head feathers messing up photos. ;-p This is the best one I've managed to date...