The sea duck belongs to the duck family; it is a waterfowl and medium-sized bird. This is a wonderful dive that amazes with its swimming abilities. As the name suggests, ducks spend most of their time in the water, occasionally venturing onto land. They feel uncomfortable on earth, so they prefer to return to their native spaces as soon as possible. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and reveal all the cards, so that below you can familiarize yourself with the main characteristics of the birds.

Habitat

Representatives of the family belong to ducks distinguished by their ability to dive deeply. These birds prefer to settle in Canada, as well as in the United States of America. They are found in Washington, Dakota, Wyoming, and Oregon. When winter comes, birds move to warmer climates. They live in Florida and Massachusetts. They go to South America and Mexico for the winter. Found in Hawaii and the Canary Islands.

Birds prefer marshy areas; it is in these areas that they build nests for future offspring and subsequently reproduce. They love floating vegetation, as well as thickets of reeds, hornwort, and yarrow.

Ducks are excellent divers and can swim underwater for a long time, so they require appropriate sources for habitat with a decent depth. Individuals of this group are found in both salty and freshwater environments. They love a variety of ponds, wetlands, coastal areas, rivers, lakes, etc. They try to move away from meadows covered with water.

Description

In females, the shade of feathers can change color over the course of 12 months. Males, on the contrary, acquire a beautiful outfit exclusively during the mating season. Their beak is colored bluish, the head is black with a purple-red tint, the chest with tail and neck are purple. The back is whitish with gray patches, and the ventral part is light, like the sides. Females are brownish with a certain coffee tint. There are light colors in the plumage. The head is reddish, the spot is whitish, located at the base of the beak of a gray tone.

Regardless of what gender the individual is in front of the eyes, its secondary flight feathers will be pigmented with a whitish tone along the edges. The edge on the upper wings also stands out. This representative of the family is extremely difficult to distinguish from other ducks of this order, especially if you look closely from a decent distance.

As for the iris, the final shade varies depending on gender and age category. For example, in males and young animals the irises may be grayish, later they become green and yellow. As they age, the final color is yellow in males and brown in females.

Reproduction

1. Birds are a monogamous species, that is, the formation of pairs is constant until one of the individuals dies. Birds unite into a family when migration comes to an end in the spring. Then they build a dwelling and begin masonry.
2. This process usually occurs at the beginning of summer. In a grassy area, future parents dig a hole and line it with feathers and grass. The nest is round in shape. It turns out 6-14 eggs, green in color.
3. Some representatives of the species do not build a nest on their own, but occupy the vacant home of other ducks. Hatching lasts three weeks.
4. The young of the presented individuals are born from fairly large eggs. Moreover, this phenomenon occurs exclusively in the warm season. It is because of this feature that chicks have a very high chance of survival, unlike other species of ducks.
5. Often, newly hatched chicks may die within a few weeks. Such a misfortune occurs due to hypothermia or hunting by predators. It is worth noting that the chicks of the individuals in question are born at the end of the breeding season.
6. This is due to the fact that at this time an abundance of amphipods appears in reservoirs. This is the main diet of the individuals in question. The young begin to fly already 2 months after birth.
7. Moreover, the next year males and females are already able to give birth to offspring. If for any reason a couple fails to reproduce, reproduction is postponed until next year. The lifespan of such birds can be up to 18 years.

Characteristics

1. Separately, it is worth noting that the presented individuals are completely social and do not show any aggression. Therefore, they are quite loyal to other representatives of birds. Only during the breeding season between various types skirmishes can be seen. During such a period, males can desperately protect their females.
2. In the cold season, ducks gather in huge flocks. After this they begin migration. It is worth noting that during nesting the presented individuals do not seek to defend their own territory. This is due to the fact that birds already occupy small areas. Moreover, ducks can change the size of their territory throughout the breeding season.
3. The total area during the nesting period of the individuals in question can be from 26 to 165 hectares. With the onset of cold weather, birds begin to migrate to warmer regions with favorable conditions. After wintering, females always return to their native places. As for males, they do not always act in this way.

Individuals of the presented species belong to the ducks, of which there are a large number of individuals. Therefore, it is believed that the birds are not in danger of extinction. In addition, they have a fairly wide habitat. Only in North America is the population gradually declining.

Video: sea duck (Aythya marila)

Description

The duck is medium sized, slightly larger than the Tufted Duck. In the spring, the male's head, neck and chest are black, with a green tint; in contrast to male tufted ducks, the back is light gray, with a fine transverse streaky pattern; from a distance it looks white, almost the same color with a pure white belly and sides. There is no Ukrainian. The general color tone of the female is brown, quite variable - from reddish to dark brown, they are usually lighter and redder than the females of the tufted duck, the belly is dirty white. In contrast to the tufted duck, there is a wide dirty white ring on the “face” around the beak, and there is often a more or less noticeable light spot on the cheek (on the ear), more pronounced in summer. On the hunted female, you can see a transverse streaky pattern on her brown back, which is not found on the tufted duck. The beak is wide gray-blue, brighter in males. The eyes are yellow, the paws are gray, in all outfits there is a white mirror along the entire length of the wing, like a tufted duck. After the summer molt, the male has the same spring pattern, but there are a lot of brown feathers all over, there are white streaks on the chest, there are often lightenings on the beak and on the ear, where the female has it, but much weaker, the head is without shine. In autumn juveniles the coloration is almost like that of females, but the ring around the beak is narrow, incomplete, or absent, the sides are more uniformly brown, the eyes are yellow-brown; young males differ from females in having a more pronounced streaky pattern on the back and a darker head and chest. One-year-old males may have “blots” in their breeding plumage - elements of the female plumage, a weaker green tint, and a brownish coating on the back. Females and males are similar in size: weight 900 - 1200 g, length 42-51, wing 20.2-23.7, span 72-84 cm.

Spreading

Breeds in the tundra, forest-tundra and northern taiga. On migration it is found further south, while in Western Siberia it is a common migrant, in many areas of Eastern Siberia it is rare and very rare.

Information sources

Gavrilov E. I., Gavrilov A. E. "The Birds of Kazakhstan". Almaty, 2005.
V.K. Ryabitsev. "Birds of Siberia". Moscow-Ekaterinburg, Publishing House "Cabinet Scientist", 2014.

Rare breeding, abundant migratory and rare wintering species. This duck nests on the shores of the hall. Aniva (Lososei Bay), lakes Nevskoye and Lebyazhye, on the lakes of the Tonino-Aniva Peninsula (village Yuzhnoye), on the coasts of Nabilsky, Chaivo, Piltun and some other bays, in the north-west of the island near the mouth of the river. Tengi, on the lakes of the Schmidt Peninsula, in addition, on the coast of the hall. Patience and in the floodplain of the river. Viakhtu (Gizenko, 1955). Possible nesting on the shore of the lake. Tunaich, where during June 1986 I observed pairs of birds and flocks of 100-200 individuals, among which males predominated.

Timing of seasonal movements and wintering. In the spring, in April - May, and in the first ten days of June, sea ducks are the most common diving ducks in sea bays and large lakes. In 1938, the first birds were celebrated on April 12 (Okada, 1939). The height of migration is in May.

To the hall. Aniva and the adjacent lakes and river mouths from May 19 to June 1, 1976, constantly kept 400 - 500 ducks, on some days (May 20, 27 and 30) there were 1.5-2 thousand ducks. In 1979, on May 12, a flock of 2 thousand birds was observed, and on May 30, about 100 individuals were counted; there on May 5 - 9, 1984 and May 17 - 18, 1980 - 2 - 3 thousand birds, and on June 13, 1980. about 100 copies. On the lake Tunaich on May 10, 1984, there were about 3 thousand birds. Intense migration of sea ducks was also observed on the coastline. Terpeniya (the mouth of the Vladimirovka River): from May 19 to June 1, 1977, flocks of 100 - 500 individuals were seen daily, most birds kept in pairs; at a distance of 5 km along the shore of the hall. Patience On May 28, 1977, about 500 birds were counted in 1 hour. On the lake Nevskoe from June 7 to June 11, 1977 V.A. Nechaev observed flocks of 30-300 birds. On the lakes of the western coast of the island, sea ducks are less numerous. So, on the lake. Ainskoe from May 19 to June 1, 1978, I met them only 2 times: May 19 - 3 birds and May 20 - about 20 individuals; at the same time, numerous flocks of birds stayed in the waters of the Tatar Strait. During the period of migration, single birds and small flocks of ducks are also found in fresh water bodies along the valleys of the Tym and Poronai rivers.

In autumn, ducks form smaller flocks and are less common than in spring. Flight dates: September - November. To the hall. Aniva (Salmon Bay) from October 10 to 22, 1984, V.A. Nechaev observed flocks of up to 500 birds or more. V.D. Kurenkov met about 200 ducklings on October 22, 1978 on lake. Tunaicha and about 100 birds on November 5, 1978 on the lake. Busse. A single male was observed on January 15, 1982 on the river. Susuya (Zdorikov, 1984).

The wintering grounds of this species are located in the coastal waters of the Japanese islands: the male, ringed on October 19, 1978 on the island of Hokkaido, was caught on May 2-3, 1981. Aniva (Report of the bird migration..., 1985).

Reproduction.Black ducks nest on the shores of lakes, oxbow lakes, channels and at the mouths of rivers on the coasts of bays and lagoons. I met pairs of birds in June 1976 at the hall. Chayvo. Testes of a male obtained on June 1, 1977 on the coast of the bay. Patience were increased (dimensions 16X6 and 15X6 mm). To the hall. Chaivo on June 21, 1913, “a male was caught, and 4 eggs were collected (Hesse, 1915). There are 7 - 11 eggs in a clutch of ducks (Takahashi, 1942). V.A. Nechaev observed females breeding from chicks on July 2 and 10, 1988 on the Schmidt Peninsula. July 12, 1975 on the coast of the hall. Chaivo, July 17, 1987 on the coast of the hall. Piltun and July 30, 1981 at the mouth of the river. Susuya.

Shedding. The change of plumage in sea ducks occurs in July - August. At the mouth of the river I met a flock of 45 males gathered to molt on June 21, 1984. A flock of 17 males and 2 females was observed on July 15, 1972 on the lake. Vyselkovskoye (near Lake Busse). In 2 captured birds, the entire body was covered with tassels of growing feathers, among which stumps and old feathers stuck out. In addition, molting ducks were encountered in the hall. Chaivo: on the lakes at the mouth of the river. Ossoy and in the northern part of the bay, as well as on Lake. Svetloye (near the village of Rybnoye). On the shore of the Amur Estuary in the lagoon near Cape Golovachev 3 aarycta 1979, a single male was observed who could not fly due to the lack of flight feathers.

Nutrition. In the stomachs of 20 birds caught in May - July, gastropods (Assiminea sp.) were found - from 6 to 40 specimens, 55% of the occurrences (in all stomachs they accounted for up to 80% of the mass of the contents), juvenile bivalves - in 3 stomachs, multi-legged crustaceans (Amphipoda) - 30 and 40 specimens each. in each of the 5 stomachs, pieces of Japanese eelgrass leaves and algae, pondweed seeds, sedge. (in two stomachs) and other herbaceous plants, pieces of roots and tuberous thickenings of flat-stemmed tuber reed. In 30 stomachs of ducklings caught in September - October on the lake. Tunaich (collections of V.P. Babkin), pieces of shells and juveniles of bivalves (100% of encounters) and gastropods (13.3%) mollusks, pieces of leaves of aquatic plants, in particular Japanese eelgrass (73.3%), remains of crustaceans ( Amphipoda) - in four stomachs, pondweed seeds - in 2 and pebbles. In 15 birds (November, Lake Tunaicha) - pieces of shells and juvenile bivalve mollusks - 100% of the occurrences (from 70 to 90% of the total mass of the contents), gastropods and pondweed seeds were found in two stomachs and pieces of Japanese eelgrass leaves - in four.

Even experienced hunters cannot immediately determine the type of their prey - black and white representatives of the family. It’s not a matter of amateurism; the diving crested duck and the sea duck are really very similar species of duck. How to distinguish what are the features of lifestyle and habitat? Let's talk about each in detail.

Tufted duck (nigella, white-sided duck) prefers places with a cold climate. This dark duck can be found all the way to tundra zones. They live collectively, in large flocks, and prefer to remain sedentary. This duck is a diving duck, so it settles near lakes and swamps with lush vegetation. These birds especially often settle in Western Siberia, where lakes are surrounded by forests.

The body length of a black duck is up to 50 cm, weight - 500-700 g. The body is strong with a large head on a movable neck and gray legs. Button eyes are bright yellow. The shortish blue-gray beak of the tufted duck is wide enough to not release the slippery prey fish. During the mating dances, the drake is especially beautiful - jet-black plumage, white stripes on the sides, and a flirtatious, “combed” back crest on the head. The color of the feathers of females is more restrained, the black color is “diluted” with brown and the white feathers are less noticeable. The crest characteristic of the black duck is shorter.

Attention! Interesting fact. Despite the fact that the corydalis is a duck, it does not make a typical quack. The female croaks, and the male is completely silent or whistles quietly.

The sea duck (white duck) is similar to its crested relative, but an experienced eye will still find several obvious differences:

1. These ducks are larger, up to 1300 g.
2. There is no crest on the head, and in drakes the color on the back is more “blurred” - it is lighter. The spots on the sides of the head are also slightly different; in the Whitetail they are larger.
3. Another characteristic difference between the tufted duck and its relative is the color of the beak, the very tip. The white-sided beak has the entire tip of its beak jet-black. The Whitetail has a barely visible black spot on its beak.

It is worth mentioning another related species of corydalis - the red-headed duck. The drakes of these birds have brighter, more dapper colored plumage with rufous coloring on the head and neck. And the beak is longer. Red-headed ducks prefer more secluded places; they are “based” in dense reeds.

Lifestyle, nutrition

Black ducks are mainly diurnal and are rarely seen at night. They “respect” nepotism and live in huge flocks of up to a thousand individuals. They are reluctant to fly and spend all their time on the water, diving in search of food. Land is the unloved element of these ducks; they move slowly and heavily. The “menu” of these ducks includes fish, aquatic insects and shellfish.

Chernushki and Belouski are migratory ducks. During the winter months they fly to the sea shores of Europe - the geography is great, they like France and Holland, Germany and Belgium. They are based in the Azov and Black Seas.

Nigella ducks are an example of family fidelity. Having created a pair, the birds do not part for the rest of their lives. The mating dance is a beautiful sight. The drake flaps its wings, throws its head back, sticks out its chest, showing itself in all its glory.

Ducks nest near water, making homes out of grass and leaves. Sometimes they can settle in hollows of coastal trees.

Attention! Surprisingly, female black ducks choose the “design” of their nest depending on the location. If the surface is wet, they try to cover their home with sides up to 10 cm. And in a dry place, the duck makes a depression and lines it with its down.

Female white-whiskers and tufted ducks begin breeding at the age of 2 years. When the mating season ends and a cozy nest is ready, the female lays 10-13 eggs. The size of the testicles is about 5 cm. The female incubates the chicks for almost a month, about 28 days. Already “feathered” chicks do not go far from their mother after birth. But they are able to feed themselves, they can walk and swim.

Features of diving ducks

In order to follow their purpose - to dive easily and deeply for prey, nature “gave” swimming membranes to diving ducks. And, unlike ordinary birds, the white-sided and white-sided birds have a “blade” on their finger for fast movement under water. Birds go to depths of up to 10 m and can remain underwater for almost a minute. The diving duck has rather short wings - it is more difficult for it to fly, but they do not interfere with its ability to swim quickly under water. A stump tail is also used for the same purposes.

Dives do not part with their favorite element, water, even when shot. The survival instinct encourages them to move away from the shore, hiding under the river or sea water surface.

The tufted duck, like the sea duck, is an attractive object for sport and photo hunting. Although the meat does not have an excellent taste, it tastes like fish, but the very fact of catching a dexterous, agile bird is of interest.

Diving duck: video

Today we decided to talk about ducks. But not about ordinary ducks and not about hunting them - read more about this, but about diving ducks. In our publication we will look at their species, and also learn about the characteristics of these birds. And this knowledge will definitely help us in the future in hunting such diving ducks.

Features of diving ducks

Unlike river ducks, diving ducks are ducks, goldeneyes, long-tailed ducks and scoters and other bird species- are characterized by a number of their features, which are directly related to the life of these birds in open and deep reservoirs. So, these birds have to get food mainly by diving, therefore, it is not surprising that they have a compact and muscular body, as well as dense plumage. The neck of such ducks is thick and short, the head is angular and large. Their legs are set far back and have well-developed swimming membranes, which are so necessary for these birds. It is noteworthy that they even have a small leathery blade on their back finger, which helps a novice hunter to distinguish a diving duck from an ordinary one. The wings of such a diving duck are short, the tail seems to be chopped off and has underdeveloped webs. However, if we consider appearance Such diving ducks as whelks, scoters and white-headed ducks, their tail is wedge-shaped and the elongated middle feathers make it voluminous. But in the long-tailed drake, especially in the spring feathers, the central pair of tail feathers is 10 centimeters longer than the rest of the plumage.

Where do diving ducks live?

Water is the native element of diving ducks. They are skilled divers, excellent swimmers, and in terms of their characteristics, they are in many ways superior to their other river counterparts. Therefore, it is not surprising that an experienced hunter, even from afar, will be able to distinguish the silhouette of a diving duck from an ordinary river duck. Such signs as the body of a duck, deeply immersed in water, and the tail, which touches the surface of such water, will serve as a clue. The only exception is the white-headed duck - their tail sticks up, and the long-tailed duck has elongated tail feathers that rise above the water.

Diving ducks move very poorly on land, so they do this extremely rarely. Only when the nesting period begins are they ready to make a short journey from the water to their nest and back. It is noteworthy that

Feeding diving ducks

The diet of diving ducks is closely related to deep water. So, even a depth of 5 meters is not an obstacle for them. Most of these birds prefer to eat animal food - mollusks, caddisfly larvae, dragonflies and other insects. They also love to feast on bloodworms, small crustaceans, even fish. Dives often supplement their diet with plant foods - algae, but they percentage composition in their diet depends on the type of diving ducks themselves and on the nature of the reservoir in which they live.

Types of diving ducks

Tufted duck

One of the most common species of diving ducks is tufted or common duck. Drakes of this species during the mating season have a long crest on their head, which shines and shimmers with black and green tints. The back of such a diving duck is black, and on the wings there is a noticeable white wide “mirror” that catches the eye when the bird is in flight. The duck's craw and breast seem to be covered with a black apron, the rest of the plumage on the body is pure white.

The females of this species differ little from the males in matters of plumage color, except that their black color is replaced by brown and is not so sharply differentiated from the white color of the feather. And the crest on the head itself is much smaller.

The black duck, like other diving ducks, has a rounded body that seems to be bunched into a tight lump. During flight, such ducks make a loud noise with their wings. They are also given away by their characteristic cry, which is very reminiscent of the hoarse and rough croaking of a crow - the black crow always screams like this when it is about to land on the water.

Black ducks, like other ducks, prefer to form schools. In the spring, their first herds appear earlier than others, but the ducks fly for a long time. They also chase later than others, and when most dabbling ducks are already sitting on their eggs, the ducks are just getting ready for this.

As for the choice of its habitat, this bird is very unpretentious. It can live on small rivers and lakes, and on large reservoirs. However, the reservoirs themselves should not be too shallow and should not be completely overgrown. It is very necessary for black fish to have free water in the reservoir. By the way,

this bird lives not only in fresh water, but also in salt water.

Such a wide distribution, due to its unpretentiousness to living conditions, has made the black duck a very popular bird that can be found throughout Europe and Asia. The only exceptions are tundras and deserts. Most of the sage is found in the forest-steppes of Western Siberia, where there are many reservoirs that are rich in food and protective vegetation.

Tufted ducks nest near water, in thickets of grasses or sedges, and they camouflage their nests quite skillfully. Where there are many of them, ducks can nest quite close to each other and live almost in colonies. Like other ducks, they like to rely on the protection of gulls and waders, so they willingly allow them to be close to them.

As a rule, ducks lay 8 to 10 eggs at a time. In some cases there may be more of them in the nest. However, due to the late periods of nesting and due to the fact that these birds have repeated clutches (to replace lost ones), ducklings are found late - only at the height of the season.

Most of these birds moult in the same place where they nest. But unlike other ducks, they do not form large clusters during molting. When the time approaches for departure, they gather in flocks, but can also linger in the area due to their endurance even before the freeze-up begins.

A close relative of the crested pochard is sea ​​duck. This duck is distinguished from its “relative” by its large size, the absence of a characteristic crest and the light streaky pattern on the back of the drakes. The streakiness is not so clearly visible on the brown plumage of females, which in appearance are very similar to the plumage of female Tufted Ducks. But these birds can always be distinguished by the size of the beak, the size of the body and by the light spots that are located on the side of the bird’s head - in the sea duck they are larger.

The lifestyle of the sea duck is also very similar to that of the tufted duck. But these birds are less common and they live in the tundra zone, on numerous lakes, reaches and bays. Their molting occurs in nesting areas, where they gather in large flocks, preparing to fly away. These birds travel by sea for the winter, so meeting them on continental waters is very rare. These birds winter in the Black, Caspian and western Baltic Seas.

White-eyed Pochard

This species of diving duck lives in the south in bodies of water that can be found in steppes and deserts. The color of this duck is very similar to the color of the crested duck, but it differs in that the black color replaces the chestnut one, and its back is not black, but dark green with a brown tint. And these dives themselves are very small, barely larger than the teal garter.

When the white-eyed duck rises into the air, in flight it looks like an ordinary dive, since it rises heavily and flies low, glistening with a white “mirror” located on the wings.

In the Far East, you can find the Behr pochard, which is very similar to the white-eyed pochard, but too little is known about the biology of this bird species.
Only the appearance of these birds is similar, but it does not coincide completely, for example, the Behr duck has darker tones of plumage and a bright green tint in the neck and head.