Common pochard

Voice

Largely silent. In display the male gives a soft, surprisingly high, whistling weee-oo that begins as a drawn-out wheeze. The female growls loudly and hoarsely, krrarr, especially when flushing. Best heard on still winter days between January and March on open water.

Identification

Stocky diving duck with a sloping profile from crown to bill tip. The male has a rich red-brown head, black breast and stern, a very pale grey vermiculated body and a red iris. The female is grey-brown with a warmer head, a faint pale eye-stripe and a pale mark behind the bill. Both sexes show a plain grey wingbar with no white.

Confusion species

Tufted Duck is black and white with a yellow iris and a tuft; females differ in their white wingbar. Canvasback has a steeper forehead, a greyer black-tipped bill and a yellower eye. Ferruginous Duck is far smaller and darker. The distinctive wedge of head and bill usually settles the matter instantly.

Habitat

Deep, nutrient-rich fresh waters with reed fringes: gravel pits, lakes, canals, town ponds and reservoirs. Breeds concealed in dense waterside vegetation, often near gull or tern colonies. Dives for aquatic plants, seeds and invertebrates, mostly in shallow to moderate depths and largely at night.

Range and movements

Breeds from the Netherlands and central Europe east to Central Asia. Dutch lakes hold wintering birds from central and eastern Europe. Spain has an important breeding population in the Ebro delta, the Albufera and the lagoons of La Mancha, with a strong influx of northern birds each winter.

• Resident
• Breeding (summer)
• Winter
• Passage
• Migration direction
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

Count on a large gravel pit or reservoir in November or December, ideally late in the afternoon as roosting flocks become active. Work through the group on head shape and eye colour; hybrids with Tufted and Ferruginous Duck turn up precisely in such concentrations.

Conservation status

Assessed as Vulnerable globally after a rapid decline. The causes are tangled: deteriorating water quality and loss of submerged plants, botulism, nest predation by fox and American Mink among others, and the collapse of the gull colonies that once gave shelter. Dutch breeding numbers are clearly falling too.