Tufted duck

Voice

Usually silent. In display the male gives a soft, rapid, bubbling wit-wit-weeoo, barely audible over urban background noise. The female growls hoarsely, krrr-krrr, mainly when flushing or defending ducklings. Most vocal from February to April, when courting parties form on open water.

Identification

Small, rounded diving duck with a high crown, blue-grey bill with a sharply defined black nail and a yellow iris. The male is glossy black with snow-white flanks and a long drooping tuft. The female is dark brown with paler flanks, a short blunt tuft and sometimes white at the bill base. Both show a broad white wingbar in flight.

Confusion species

Scaup is larger and rounder-headed with no tuft, a grey vermiculated back in the male and a broad white bill surround in the female. Ferruginous Duck is smaller and warm chestnut with a white undertail. Female Tufted with extensive white around the bill are routinely called Scaup; check tuft and mantle colour instead.

Habitat

Almost any deep fresh water: lakes, gravel pits, canals, town ponds, harbours and reservoirs, and in winter also brackish water and sheltered estuaries. Breeds on islets and in dense waterside vegetation, often within Black-headed Gull colonies. Dives mainly for bivalves, with zebra and quagga mussels the staple.

Range and movements

Breeds from Iceland and Scandinavia through central Europe and east across Russia, and is a common Dutch breeder. Winter numbers on the IJsselmeer and other large lakes swell enormously with birds from the north-east. In Spain it is a scarce but regular winter visitor to reservoirs and lagoons.

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

Where and when to look

Any town pond in January is enough to learn the plumages, but count the real concentrations on the IJsselmeer or Markermeer. There, in flat light, work every female for tuft length, bill pattern and mantle tone, because Scaup and hybrids are mixed in.

Conservation status

Numerous and not threatened; the species gained greatly from the spread of invasive mussels in European waters. Locally, declining mussel stocks, botulism, disturbance at roosts and lead poisoning cause problems. The Dutch breeding population has been stable to slightly declining, while winter totals fluctuate with ice conditions.