This two posts a week thing is going well isn’t it?! My focus definitely lapses when it’s not an every day commitment, I knew this would happen! Anyway, I’m writing one now and in fairness the weather since my last post in the UK has been pretty awful, Storm Ciara hit followed by a couple of extra days of high winds and lots of rain. I’ll write another post tomorrow to get me back on track! On to today’s species, a bird. Again. One that frequents my local patch during most of the autumn and winter in moderate but consistent numbers. A pleasant change from the usual park lake mallards that frequent every pond and lake in the entire world it seems.
What: Tufted Duck Aythya fuligula (Linnaeus, 1758)
When: 12th February 2020
Where: Poynton Pool, Cheshire, UK.
Who saw it: Me
How did I record it? Using the eBird app.
Is it bigger than a blackbird? Yes, about the same size as a mallard duck.
What is it? A common diving duck. Diving ducks feed by diving under the water surface to find food, unlike dabbling ducks which feed from the surface. They are increasing in number during the winter and more birds are breeding here in the spring and summer (Balmer et al, 2013). However, they don’t seem to breed in my local lake. The males look black and white from a distance but the dark colour is almost a shiny midnight blue or purple in the right light. The females, like most ducks, are brown, but in this species they are two-tone brown, the upper body a dark brown and the lower (the “hull” if it were a boat) is light brown. Both sexes have a tufted crest on their heads but these aren’t always prominent. They seem to spend most of their existence in the water; i’ve never seen them on the land. Ref: Balmer et al (2013) Bird Atlas 2007-11: The breeding and wintering birds of Britain and Ireland BTO Books, Thetford
A fact I have learned about this species: There are 18,000 pairs breeding in the UK (source: https://app.bto.org/birdfacts/results/bob2030.htm).
Are they charismatic in my opinion? I think all ducks are aren’t they? These, unlike mallards and other park water fowl, they aren’t bothered by bread; a mallard can sense a bag of breadcrumbs being opened from several miles away it seems! Tufties will just stay in the middle of the lake and just keep diving (which makes them a pain to count by the way!) whilst the mallards fight to the death for the last breadcrumb.
A Species a Day 