The Canvasback
(Aythya valisineria) is a large 15-inch duck with a 34-inch wingspan. The head and neck are copper colored, with a black breast and tail, pale gray back and sides and white belly. The wedge-shaped head is distinctive. The eyes are red and the bill is black. The female is gray with a brown chest and copper colored head and neck.
This duck is a diver. It feeds on green plant material, including wild celery, seeds and some water-borne invertebrates. It frequents prairie marshes and wetlands in summer and salt bays in winter.
The female Canvasback builds the nest, a bulky basketlike affair, in a marsh among dense vegetation. She lines it with down. She lays 7 to 12 olive-gray eggs and only she incubates them. They hatch in about 25 days and fledge in about 2 months. There is only one brood per year.
Redheads are similar but have yellow eyes, blue bill with a black tip, grayer back and the head profile is different. The Canvasback's call is short low croaks. The female quacks.
The range includes Alaska, western Canada and the northwest United States. They winter in Mexico and the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Canvasbacks migrate in the fall and early spring. They fly high and fast and often in a V-formation.
Class: Aves | Order: Anseriformes | Family: Anatidae | Species: Aythya valisineria
