The duck family is quite extensive, uniting more than 100 species. These are shelduck, duck, steamboat duck, kloktun, colorful teal, mallard, shoveler, Brazilian merganser, musky duck, red-headed pochard and others.
The article will tell you more about the latest species of the duck family.
Description
The red-headed duck is a duck whose weight reaches 1400 grams. The bird has a dense body, slightly squeezed from the sides. During the flight, it strongly raises its legs up, which is why it takes on a peculiar curved shape. The size of the head is equal to the size of the beak. In color, the male (drake) is red-brown with a purple sheen, and the duck has a red head. The wingspan is 0.6-0.8 meters. The red-headed drake is larger than the female. She has an interesting plumage in her own way. The back and chest are darkish gray, may be brown in color. The breast and belly are light grey. The color of the beak changes from gray to dirty blue. The paws of individuals of both sexes are massive, gray in color. The drake has a chest with black shoulders, a gray back, and the sides seem to be pierced with transverse ripples. The beak, unlike the female, is pale blue,dark on top.
Behaviors
The Redhead Diver is an excellent diver, immersed in water for 30-40 seconds. This bird is silent. The female has a hoarse voice, she mainly screams during the flight. During the current, the drake occasionally makes a sound similar to a whistle.
The red-headed dive, the photo of which is in the article, takes off hard, but flies fast. Its wings make a rather sharp sound when flapping. Leads a mobile life, most of which is spent on the water.
Representatives of this species can live up to 20 years, but their average lifespan is much less. Mostly centenarians are birds in captivity, where they are cared for, treated and properly fed.
Redhead pochard: habitat
Where do these birds live? Initially, divers lived in the zone of steppes and forest-steppes, but gradually the habitat expanded, and the birds settled on the warm lakes of Europe, located in the north and west. This is due to the lack of water in the usual places of settlement due to natural changes and the emergence of lakes convenient for breeding offspring in the industrial cities of Europe.
The territory of settlement (nesting range) is very extensive: it stretches from Britain to Baikal, from the Caspian and Black Seas to the Amu Darya and the legendary Semirechye. The southern border of the settlement of the diver is the areas of anhydrous solonchaks. In the USA and Canada, it can be found on the northern lakes (Athabasca, Buffalo, Manitoba), in the east in the Nebraska Delta and in mountainous areas. Sierra Nevada in the west of the mainland. In Africa, these birds live as far south as Cape Verde, and also in Arabia.
The red-headed dive spends winter in the B altic, North Sea, Black Sea, Mediterranean and Caspian shores, as well as on the Japanese islands, on the Syrian and Iraqi coasts, in the coastal regions of Iran and Pakistan and in northern India.
Shedding is an important period in life
At a certain time, the drakes of diving go to a short-term molt. Every year they fly to the same place where they gather in large flocks. Molting takes place mainly in the lake forest-steppe. The first time they molt in the summer - this is the reset of the wedding dress, again - in the fall - before new mating games. Young drakes molt for the first time in September and then completely change their plumage.
The female goes through a period of molting on the nest, and if she does not have a brood, then she molts along with the males.
Migratory Diving Routes
Diving can be migratory and settled. The latter live exclusively on the islands of Britain. Divers from Norway, from the north of Germany, from the B altic states and from the north of Russia also fly here and winter. They go to nesting sites in pairs after the ice melts from water bodies.
On the Kokchetav lakes (northern Kazakhstan) and lakes in the Kurgan region, a small part of birds from the Urals, Western Siberia and the Khanty-Mansiysk district gather to molt. Most of the drakes ringed there fly to the Mediterranean Sea, where they spend the winter. They fly bypassing the mountains of the Southern Urals, the lowlands of the Don and southern Ukraine. Small thempart remains on the Black Sea coast. Some fly to the Caspian.
After the British wintering in March comes the time of flight, which is carried out until the end of April. Birds begin to leave the northwestern regions of the Black Sea in early April. They leave Adjara at the end of March. They fly from Iraq in March. The dive arrives late at the nesting sites. On the Middle Volga, it appears in the twentieth of April, but until the end of May, you can still see small flocks of migratory birds. At the end of April, you can watch the mass passage of these birds through Tataria.
Red-headed pochards wintering on the Japanese islands leave at the end of April. Drakes fly first, followed by females and young birds two weeks later.
Nesting
The dive loves to nest on deep lakes of the taiga, forest-steppe, where there are a large number of reeds, and in open areas. In the nesting area, birds fly in small flocks, almost touching the water. They coexist well with other species of ducks, do not compete with them in terms of foraging, as they feed mainly at night. When they breed, they prefer a plant-based menu. During migration and wintering, birds join in huge flocks.
A common way to locate a nest attached to the stems of aquatic grasses. The base is a fallen tree made of reed or cattail, in which an average depth is made. Then the red-headed pochard, described above, lines it with fluff, plucked from the breast, and frames it with a downy roll in the form of a roller. This floating structure is well attached and based on the water thanks to the stems and roots of aquatic plants. Another nest is built on hummocks and tubercles, overgrown with sedge, on the shore, not far from the water. It is made from the foliage of coastal plants, it is 30 cm in diameter, its height is 25 cm.
Food
The feeding places for them are reservoirs, in which there is a lot of aquatic vegetation, sometimes not quite large. Also, they do not avoid s alt lakes that have food. Diving food is both vegetable and animal (larvae, mosquitoes, midges, tadpoles, etc.). The diet changes depending on the season. In transition - spring and autumn - vegetable food, and in winter and summer - animal food.
Reproduction
How does the pochard breed? The female reaches sexual maturity after the first (sometimes the second) year of life, the drake matures in the second year. Mating games are played at nesting sites. Several drakes usually court one female, which they surround on the water and show dances, throwing their heads high and making whistling sounds. The female has the right to choose a partner. She mates with him, makes a nest and incubates eggs. In April - May, ducks begin to create masonry. Some nests may contain the eggs of two or three females, as some negligent mothers throw their eggs into the nests of their neighbors. Sometimes the clutch dies for some unknown reason, then the female lays her eggs in a new place. In the laying of the dive - from 8 to 12 eggs, their color is greenish-blue. The female is incubatingeggs about 25 days old.
Diver offspring
Emerged chicks weigh between 40 and 50 grams and stay in the nest until dry. Drakes do not take part in the care of ducklings, they do not approach the nest. At first they are nearby. They feed with females, then gather in small same-sex flocks. Leaving the nest, the duck covers the chicks with fluff.
Ducklings on the third day already dive well and can catch insects. The down of hatched chicks is very thick. On the second day, they independently get their own food, peck insects and plant seeds, and dive. Monthly chicks are already fully fledged, and two-month-olds are able to fly. The chicks gather in flocks, keep thickets of reeds and sedges. In case of danger, ducklings are buried in them.
In early August, they leave the nests, move on to a nomadic life.
Human Care
How is the red-headed pochard protected? The Red Book of Russia contains an entry about this bird due to the fact that the number of this species has decreased from 60 to 10-15 thousand. This is due to the intensive development of the territories where the pochard, which is a game bird, settles.
