Red-headed Duck - Duck

Red-headed diving duck,

also known as the red-headed or blue diving duck, belongs to the so-called diving ducks. A characteristic feature of these ducks is their ability to dive well and stay underwater for a relatively long time. Unlike river ducks, they forage at significant depths and can live in deep-water bodies. The red-headed diving duck is a fairly large, robust duck with a large head.

Its weight ranges from 0.7 to 1.3 kg. It swims excellently, sitting quite low in the water, with its tail partially submerged. It dives well, remaining underwater for up to 30 seconds. It takes off heavily, at a diagonal angle, but flies quickly, making a characteristic noise. The male is markedly different from the female. The male's head is chestnut-red, its back is grayish-blue with small speckles, and its sides are light gray. The described species received the aforementioned names due to the coloration of its head and back. The female has a brownish-brown front body with light areas around the bill and on the throat. In flight, the white belly, light back, and wing underparts are visible, along with the dark chest and head. The female is slightly smaller than the male.

It is a common nesting and numerous migratory bird. It inhabits freshwater and saline steppe lakes and rivers significantly overgrown with reeds, preferring deep water bodies, and also nests in the mountains at altitudes up to 1500 m in Altai. It appears somewhat later than river ducks, from early March to mid-April. It flies in independent flocks of several dozen to 100-150 birds. Typically, migration ends by mid-May.

The red-headed diving duck feeds on both plant and animal food, with the composition of its diet changing depending on the season and location. In spring and autumn, green parts, rhizomes, and seeds of aquatic plants predominate. During the summer period, animal food such as chironomid larvae takes a significant place, with mollusks, caddisfly larvae, etc., being present in smaller quantities. During wintering, diving ducks living in large flocks at sea feed on animal food, while those inhabiting inland water bodies consume a mixed diet with a predominance of plant food.

The nest is located in reed thickets, in shallow waters, or on meadow hummocks, and in flooded forests; it is built from dry reed leaves and other vegetation and lined with down. The clutch consists of 5-14 eggs and is laid from late April to late June. The female incubates the clutch for 24-26 days. The chicks hatch from late May to early July and begin to fly from late July to late August. After the females start incubating, the males gather at large deep lakes for molting (from late May to mid-July). The autumn migration begins in September, with the main migration flow occurring from late September to October; some individual birds linger until November when the water bodies begin to freeze.

Distribution: across the lakes and rivers of Kyrgyzstan.

Birds