White-headed Duck - BirdForum Opus

Male
Photo by pale42
Malaga, Spain May 2009

Oxyura leucocephala

Identification

43-48cm (17-19 in)

• Chestnut brown body
• Blue bill
• White head
• Black cap and neck
  

Female

• Grey-brown body
• White face
• Dark bill, cap and a cheek stripe

Variation

Female
Photo by daniscoping
Laguna de Tarelo, Cadiz, southern Spain, March 2004

Some birds show white undertail-coverts

Distribution

Patchily distributed Mediterranean basin Spain and North Africa to central Asia.

The integrity of the Spanish population threatened by hybridization with the imported Ruddy Duck

Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species^[1].

Habitat

Large tracts of open water with dense stands of aquatic plants.

Behaviour

Tail often held erect.

Diet

The diet consists mostly of the seeds and leaves of aquatic plants with the addition of some invertebrates.

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. Birdforum thread discussing id of this species
3. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved November 2016)

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) White-headed Duck. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 29 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/White-headed_Duck

External Links

Search for photos of White-headed Duck in the gallery

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1