One of those ducks you can’t really confuse with anything else—at least not if it’s a fully dressed adult male. He looks like he’s wearing a bright orange crash helmet, with a rounded, puffed-up head that glows in the sun. Add a rich black chest, soft pale flanks, a warm brown back, and a bright red bill and eyes, and you get a bird that looks more like a floating toy than something wild. Females are much more subtle but still elegant: soft brown overall with a pale face and darker cap, and a greyish bill with a hint of red.
The red-crested pochard lives mainly around lakes, reservoirs, and large, quiet wetlands across parts of Europe and Asia. It likes fairly deep water with plenty of open space for swimming and diving, but also values a ring of reeds and aquatic plants around the edges. These ducks are technically “divers,” but they’re not strict deep-water specialists. They’re perfectly happy to tip up like dabbling ducks in shallow water, tails in the air, feeding at the surface. Their favorite foods are seeds, roots, and leafy parts of aquatic plants, along with a side of insects, snails, and other small creatures. In some places, they feed a lot at night, cruising out into open water after dark and then spending much of the day resting in quieter corners of the lake.
Red-crested pochards tend to nest in loose groups, often near other waterbirds, on lakes with plenty of cover. The female chooses a well-hidden spot among reeds, low bushes, or floating vegetation and builds a nest lined with soft down plucked from her own body. She lays a clutch of eggs and then does most of the work herself: incubating, guarding, and later leading the ducklings. The male often stays nearby at first but eventually leaves to join other males for the molt, when they temporarily lose their ability to fly and gather on safe stretches of open water
Distribution
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Bhutan
Bosnia And Herz.
Bulgaria
China
Croatia
Cyprus
Czechia
Denmark
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Hungary
India
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Latvia
Lebanon
Libya
Malta
Moldova
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Myanmar
Nepal
Netherlands
North Macedonia
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Tajikistan
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkmenistan
Turkey
UAE
Ukraine
United Kingdom
UzbekistanAnything we've missed?
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Terrestrial / Aquatic
Altricial / Precocial
Polygamous / Monogamous
Dimorphic (size) / Monomorphic
Active: Diurnal / Nocturnal
Social behavior: Solitary / Pack / Flock
Diet: Carnivore / Herbivore / Omnivore / Piscivorous / Insectivore
Migratory: Yes / No
Domesticated: Yes / No
Dangerous: Yes / No
