Breeding adult male. Photo: Brian Kushner/Audubon Photography Awards
Aythya valisineria
| Conservation status | Numbers vary from year to year, but species has been generally declining for some time. Loss of nesting habitat may be the main threat. |
|---|---|
| Family | Ducks and Geese |
| Habitat | Lakes, salt bays, estuaries; in summer, fresh marshes. For nesting shallow marshes in prairie regions. Also large marshy lake complexes to the north, in boreal forest regions, and a few to edge of tundra. In migration mostly on large lakes. Winters mainly near coast, on protected bays and estuaries; also on lakes in interior. |
Dives for food, usually in water only a few feet deep. In very shallow water may stir up bottom sediments with feet, then up-end to feed; also takes some food from surface of water.
7-12. Olive-gray. Redheads often lay eggs in Canvasback nests; when this happens, female Canvasback is likely to lay fewer eggs. Incubation is by female only, 23-28 days. Young: several hours after hatching, young are led to open water by female. Young feed themselves. Female remains with young for several weeks, but departs before they fledge; young are capable of flight roughly 60-70 days after hatching.
several hours after hatching, young are led to open water by female. Young feed themselves. Female remains with young for several weeks, but departs before they fledge; young are capable of flight roughly 60-70 days after hatching.
Mostly plant material. Mainly eats the leaves, roots, and seeds of aquatic plants: pondweeds, wild celery, sedges, grasses, and others. Also eats mollusks, insects, some small fish. In one study in summer, adult males continued to eat mostly plants, while females and young fed on aquatic insect larvae.
Pair formation occurs mostly at stopover points during spring migration. Several males may court 1 female. Displays of male include snapping the head far back and then thrusting it forward, while giving clicking and cooing callnotes. Nest site is in marsh, in stands of dense vegetation above shallow water. Sometimes on dry ground. Nest (built by female) is basketlike and bulky, built of dead vegetation, lined with down.
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
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