This female duck is so cute, it could be a cartoon character without much alteration to it's looks. It is smallest among the diving ducks found in North America at little more than a foot long. They nest in tree cavities similar to wood ducks. Often, it is in an old nest that a northern flicker has built. Loss of trees due to logging in the boreal forest of Canada reduces their nesting sites. There are not many on the Bay yet, but soon there will be large rafts of birds spending the winter on coastal waters.
They dive in five to ten feet of water looking for crustaceans and mollusks and maybe small fish. I have seen some eating things that were hard to identify, but every once in a while I have seen the easily identified legs of small crabs sticking out of their bills.
I "doctored" the photo to look a little more illustrative. The white patch on the side of the head is a distinctive recognition feature. Note the stiff-looking tail which I'm not sure isn't used as a diving aid. In watching them dive, I wonder if they don't thrust their tail much like a blue whale or a manatee kicks their tail when they submerge.
No comments:
Post a Comment