Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Diving Bufflehead Duck

By: Tom Berg

There are about 29 native species of ducks in North America today, from mallards and pintails to redheads and gadwalls – just to name a few.  That does not even include the various species of mergansers, grebes, loons and geese.  Some species of ducks, like the bufflehead, breed almost exclusively in central and north-central Canada, and also in certain areas of central Alaska.

Bufflehead are very small ducks with a wingspan of only 20-21 inches.  Males have a pure white body with a black back, and a round, dark head with a bright white patch extending around their head from one eye to the other.  In the sunlight the darker feathers on their head shine with a greenish and purplish hue.  Females are much more drab in color, with a gray body and a dark brown head.  They have a distinct white patch on their cheeks which helps in identifying them.

When feeding, bufflehead ducks seem to spend more time underwater than above water.  They are expert divers.  They love to eat aquatic insect larvae like mayfly and dragonfly larvae, but they also relish snails, mussels, crayfish and other aquatic invertebrates.  They dive underwater for their food, picking off tasty morsels from the bottom and from aquatic plants before returning to the surface.

Bufflehead nests are typically found in tree cavities, usually cavities previously excavated by large woodpeckers such as pileated woodpeckers and northern flickers.  They will also utilize nest boxes when available, but since they nest in the far north the vast majority of nesting occurs in trees.  Bufflehead clutch sizes are fairly large, with anywhere from 4-5 eggs to 16-17 eggs in each nest.

During the winter, bufflehead ducks migrate to the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, and also to the Gulf coast where the weather is much milder.  They spend their time in sheltered bays and inlets where there is plenty of food. Individuals on the coasts search in brackish water and saltwater for shrimp, clams, crabs and even small fish. When the weather starts to warm in the springtime, they head north again!

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