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Diving ducks frequent large, deep lakes and rivers, as well as coastal bays and inlets. When launching into flight, most of this group patter along the water before becoming airborne. They feed by diving, often to considerable depths. Since their wings are smaller in proportion to the size and weight of their bodies, they have a more rapid wingbeat than puddle ducks. |
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Barrow's Goldeneye
Bucephala islandica
At-a-Glance
• Type: Diving Duck
• Incubation: 32-34 days
• Clutch Size: 6-15 eggs
• Young Fledge: 56 days after hatching
• Typical foods: aquatic plants, mollusks, fish, and shellfish |
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Description
Barrow's goldeneye has a dark back and light underside. Its head is also dark and looks as if it has lump on top of it. This species is larger than the bufflehead. The male has a white crescent in front of and below the eye and the female has a white collar below a dark head.
Habitat and Habits
These are active, strong-winged fliers that move singly or in small flocks, often high in the air. A distinctive wing-whistling sound produced in flight has earned this and other species the name of "whistlers." Goldeneyes generally move south late in the season, but most of them winter on coastal waters and the Great Lakes. Inland, they like rapid and fast waters. Barrow's goldeneye, predominantly a westerner, is less wary than the common goldeneye. The drakes make a piercing speer-speer sound and hens have a low quack, although both are usually quiet.
Reproduction and Care of the Young
The nest is a bed of down in a hollow tree or in a crevice among rocks. |
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