|
Redhead |
|
Aythya americana . |
| Description: 18-22" male gray with brick-red head and black breast, female duller and browner, bothe sexes have pale gray wing-stripe and blue-gray bill, Canvasback has whiter body and sloping forehead and bill | Habitat: Rather deep, freshwater swamps, marshes, wetlands, ponds, lakes with extensive areas of open water. In winter, on brackish coastal lagoons where they may gather in rafts of thousands of birds. Also seen in freshwater ponds in back of coastal beaches. |
| Nesting: 10 to 16 buff eggs in a woven cup of reeds lined with white down attached to vegetation | Range: breeds from Canada east to Minnesota south to Colorado, winters in southern half of US. |
| Voice: like the meow! of a house cat, also quacks like a Mallard | Diet: Aquatic vegetation; aquatic invertebrates, especially insects, crustaceans, snails. |
| Notes: Often associate with Lesser Scaup. Fly low over the water in tight, wedge-shaped flocks, incubate their own clutch and "dump" some of their eggs into other species' nests |
| When present in Oklahoma: seen all year in panhandle, winter mostly rest of state |