Error message
Unable to fetch location details at this time.
Red-crested pochard
Netta rufina
36.1296, -77.4202
Field Notes
Description:
A large diving duck. The male has a rounded orange head, red bill and black breast. The flanks are white, the back brown, and the tail black. The female is mainly a pale brown, with a darker back and crown and a whitish face. Males and non-breeders molt and cannot fly for four weeks between June and August (females molt a month later) They are the only waterfowl that engage in ritualized courtship feeding, in which males present food offerings to their mates. They build a nest by the lakeside among vegetation and lay 8-12 pale green eggs.
These are gregarious birds, forming large flocks in winter, often mixed with other diving ducks. They eat aquatic plants, and typically upend for food more than most diving ducks. Their main threats are habitat loss and hunting.
Habitat:
Its breeding habitat is lowland marshes and lakes in southern Europe and Central Asia, wintering in the Indian Subcontinent and Africa. It is somewhat migratory, and northern birds winter further south into north Africa. They are found in deep fresh or brackish reed-fringed lakes, rivers, or saline and alkaline lagoons and less frequently on estuaries, river deltas and other sheltered coastal habitats.
Notes:
Another source: BirdLife International (2012).Species factsheet; http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=469
Comments (3)