Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Tufted ducks are mi­gra­tory birds with a broad ge­o­graphic range that ex­tends from Eura­sia and Africa to the North Amer­i­can coasts. They were his­tor­i­cally na­tive only to the Palearc­tic Re­gion. How­ever, over the past cen­tury, their range has ex­panded due to an in­creased avail­abil­ity of open water due to man-made changes in its habi­tat. Man-made lakes have pro­vided these birds with ideal feed­ing habi­tats. (Bent, 1951; BirdLife In­ter­na­tional, 2011)

Dur­ing breed­ing months (May to early Au­gust), tufted ducks in­habit most Palearc­tic re­gions such as the Faroe Is­lands, the British Isles, Nor­way, nearly all of Eu­rope, and Asia to east­ern Siberia. The limit of their range ex­tends from about 70 de­grees North and South lat­i­tudes to about 50 de­grees north. Dur­ing the win­ter months (No­vem­ber to April), tufted ducks can be found in south­ern Eu­rope, north­ern Africa, south­ern Asia, and some areas through­out North Amer­ica. They can also be found oc­ca­sion­ally through­out areas of Madeira, Bor­neo, Liberia, the Sey­chelle, Pelew, Mar­i­anne and Philip­pine Is­lands. (Bent, 1951; BirdLife In­ter­na­tional, 2011)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native
• palearctic
  • native
• ethiopian
  • native
• indian ocean
• pacific ocean
• mediterranean sea

Habi­tat

The habi­tat of tufted ducks varies sea­son­ally due to its mi­gra­tory be­hav­ior. Through­out the breed­ing sea­son, they are most often found in shal­low lakes. They pre­fer shal­low water rang­ing from 3 to 5 m deep, with tall thick wet­land veg­e­ta­tion, such as reeds, for perch­ing and preen­ing. Veg­e­ta­tion is also an im­por­tant fac­tor in pro­tec­tion from the wind. Dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son tufted ducks typ­i­cally avoid lakes that are deeper than 15 m. Dur­ing win­ter months, they can be found gen­er­ally in larger bod­ies of open water such as marshes, lakes, es­tu­ar­ies, and man-made ponds. Dur­ing pe­ri­ods of mi­gra­tion, they can also be found in and along rivers. (Bent, 1951; BirdLife In­ter­na­tional, 2009)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial
• saltwater or marine
• freshwater

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland

• Aquatic Biomes
• lakes and ponds
• rivers and streams
• coastal

• Wetlands
• marsh

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural
• estuarine

• Range depth

  2 to 15 m

  6.56 to 49.21 ft

• Average depth

  7 m

  22.97 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Tufted ducks are small to medium-sized div­ing ducks. Sex­ual di­mor­phism is clearly ap­par­ent among males and fe­males. Males are typ­i­cally larger than fe­males, with an av­er­age body length of 42 to 48 cm and a mass of 753.0 to 1026.2 g. Fe­males gen­er­ally range from 39 to 44 cm in length and weigh in at 629.8 to 906.8 g. Sea­son­ally, body mass will fluc­tu­ate be­tween sexes. Both male and fe­male tufted ducks have an av­er­age wingspan of 70 cm. (Cleeves, 2002; Dick, 2002; Robin­son, 2005)

The defin­ing char­ac­ter­is­tic of this species that dis­tin­guishes them from the other mem­bers of Anati­dae is the dis­tinct tuft lo­cated on the back of the head. The tuft is black and more promi­nent on males, and gen­er­ally brown and less no­tice­able on fe­males. Adult males are solid black with white un­der­bel­lies and flanks. They have bright yel­low eyes and a dis­tinct tuft that is some­times mat­ted down from div­ing. Adult fe­males are brown with dark yel­low flanks and a white un­der­belly and a less pro­nounced tuft, or some­times no tuft at all. Fe­males also have bright yel­low eyes. The wing un­der­sides of both adult fe­males and males is white. (Cleeves, 2002; Dick, 2002; Robin­son, 2005)

Ju­ve­nile tufted ducks are sim­i­lar in ap­pear­ance to ma­ture fe­male adults, how­ever, ju­ve­nile color is less vi­brant and the tuft is less pro­nounced. Males in non-breed­ing plumage also re­sem­ble fe­males with a brown tint and a less promi­nent tuft or no tuft at all. (Cleeves, 2002; Dick, 2002; Robin­son, 2005)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger
• sexes colored or patterned differently
• male more colorful

• Range mass

  753.0 (male) 629.8 (female) to 1026.2 (male) 906.8 (female) g

  to oz

• Average mass

  889.6 (male) 768.3 (female) g

  oz

• Range length

  406.4 to 457.2 mm

  16.00 to 18.00 in

• Average length

  431.8 mm

  17.00 in

• Range wingspan

  201.5 (male) 193.6 (female) to 212.1 (male) 206.6 (female) mm

  to in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Tufted ducks are monog­a­mous and breeds once a year. Adults form pair bonds dur­ing spring mi­gra­tion and mates re­main to­gether until late June to early July. Re­pro­duc­tive be­hav­ior and man­ner­isms are sim­i­lar to other div­ing ducks. Ex­am­ples of "show­ing off" be­hav­ior in­clude dip­ping, also known as drink­ing, which is when the males and fe­males swim quickly along­side one an­other and dip their bills in and out of the water. An­other ex­am­ple is the neck stretch, which is when the male swims rapidly past the fe­male and reaches its neck to its en­tire length, hold­ing it there for a few sec­onds. Male-only dis­plays are few but con­sist of nod swim­ming (a fast swim that in­cludes nod­ding the head back in forth with full ex­ten­sion), a head throw (sim­i­lar to neck stretch), and preen­ing be­hind the wing. (Bent, 1951; Cleeves, 2002; Robin­son, 2005)

• Mating System
• monogamous

The breed­ing sea­son for tufted ducks oc­curs from May through early Au­gust, with peak ac­tiv­ity from mid-May to mid-July. The breed­ing sea­son be­gins with pair bond­ings which are formed dur­ing spring mi­gra­tion and con­tinue until late June or early July. (Bent, 1951; Cleeves, 2002; Robin­son, 2005)

For nest site se­lec­tion, pairs browse along the open wa­ters of wet­lands. Fe­males swim into flooded areas look­ing for a suit­able nest­ing site while males stay alert for preda­tors and other threats. Ideal nest­ing areas are near water, gen­er­ally amid dense veg­e­ta­tion. The fe­male is the con­struc­tor of the nest which re­quires al­most a week to com­plete. Grasses and feath­ers are used as sup­port for the nest. By the third day of nest build­ing, a bowl shape has been formed; by day six, the nest is strong with a de­fined shape. (Bent, 1951; Cleeves, 2002; Robin­son, 2005)

Fe­male tufted ducks lay be­tween 6 and 14 eggs a sea­son, but on av­er­age be­tween 8 and 10. Eggs are smooth and ovu­lar in shape and range in color from olive-brown to olive-gray. In­cu­ba­tion starts after the clutch is com­pleted and be­gins on the first night the fe­male re­mains in the nest overnight. In­cu­ba­tion usu­ally lasts 26 to 27 days. Chicks hatch usu­ally weigh­ing 28 to 31 g, cov­ered in downy feath­ers, and can gen­er­ally begin fol­low­ing par­ents and feed­ing them­selves soon after hatch­ing. Fledg­ing oc­curs 49 to 56 days after hatch­ing and in­de­pen­dence oc­curs 21 to 56 days after fledg­ing. Re­pro­duc­tive ma­tu­rity is quickly reached by both sexes, and breed­ing can occur dur­ing the fol­low­ing breed­ing sea­son. (Bent, 1951; Cleeves, 2002; Robin­son, 2005)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Tufted ducks breed once yearly.

• Breeding season

  The breeding season occurs during late winter or spring months

• Range eggs per season

  8 to 11

• Average eggs per season

  9 to 10

• Range time to hatching

  25 to 29 days

• Average time to hatching

  26 to 27 days

• Range fledging age

  49 to 56 days

• Range time to independence

  21 to 56 days

• Average time to independence

  43 days

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  1 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  1 years

Parental care for duck­lings is ex­hib­ited only by fe­males. Males do con­tribute in­di­rectly by tak­ing care of nu­tri­tional needs of the fe­male dur­ing the lay­ing process. The young emerge from the egg with­out any help from the mother, after which she dis­poses of the egg by in­gest­ing it, re­mov­ing it from nest area, or crush­ing the shells. Young tufted ducks do not de­pend on their moth­ers for food after they learn to dive. This typ­i­cally oc­curs within the first 48 hours of hatch­ing, how­ever, dur­ing this first week young duck­lings rely mostly on sur­face foods. (Bent, 1951)

• Parental Investment
• precocial
• female parental care
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-independence
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Lit­tle is known about the lifes­pan and longevity of tufted ducks.

Be­hav­ior

Tufted ducks are mi­gra­tory birds that travel sea­son­ally be­tween the breed­ing and over­win­ter­ing grounds. Like most ducks, they are highly aquatic and rarely stray far from a body of water. They are di­ur­nal for most of their life but may mi­grate noc­tur­nally. (Cleeves, 2002; Hill, 1983)

Dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son, male tufted duckss es­tab­lish ter­ri­to­ries sur­round­ing their nest and will de­fend it against neigh­bor­ing males and preda­tors. Dur­ing mi­gra­tory pe­ri­ods and the non-breed­ing sea­son, they are so­cial. Groups typ­i­cally gather in shal­low lakes, ponds, and slow mov­ing rivers. Males are gen­er­ally silent ex­cept dur­ing mat­ing. Fe­males make a "karr" sound dur­ing flight. (Cleeves, 2002; Hill, 1983)

This species can be dis­tin­guished from other div­ing ducks by their unique div­ing be­hav­ior. They launch them­selves slightly out of the water to help sub­merge their bod­ies un­der­wa­ter while for­ag­ing in shal­low water. Sub­mer­gence time for ju­ve­niles is less than that of adults. Duck­lings and ju­ve­niles skim the sur­face of wa­ters for emerg­ing in­sects and dive in very shal­low water for New Zealand mud snails (Potam­mopy­r­gus jenk­insi) and Zebra mus­sels (Dreis­sena poly­mor­pha). Sub­mer­gence time grad­u­ally in­creases as in­di­vid­u­als ma­ture and in­crease in size. (Cleeves, 2002; Hill, 1983)

• Key Behaviors
• flies
• natatorial
• diurnal
• motile
• migratory
• territorial
• social
• colonial

Home Range

The range of tufted ducks for both breed­ing and res­i­dency is es­ti­mated at 20,400,000 km². Spe­cific ter­ri­tory sizes for male tufted ducks is cur­rently un­known. (BirdLife In­ter­na­tional, 2009)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

The use of vi­sual and acoustic per­cep­tions is key for tufted ducks be­cause they are needed to com­mu­ni­cate for mat­ing rit­u­als and warn­ing calls. Like most birds, they per­ceive their en­vi­ron­ment through vi­sual, au­di­tory, tac­tile and chem­i­cal stim­uli. (Bent, 1951)

Both fe­males and males make sim­i­lar calls, korr,korr,korr, or ka-ka-ka, karr, with the fe­male nor­mally pre­sent­ing the call louder. Calls are nor­mally emit­ted when be­gin­ning to fly, quar­rel­ing, or when star­tled. (Bent, 1951)

Dur­ing mate se­lec­tion, two or three male ducks will flaunt their at­trib­utes in the pres­ence of a fe­male. To at­tract mates, males will swim in cir­cles around a fe­male, pass­ing her rapidly. The male will ex­tend his neck to full length and raises his bill but will not look in the fe­male's di­rec­tion. Like other div­ing ducks, male tufted ducks dip their bills fre­quently and sound calls dur­ing courtship. Fe­males have also been spot­ted flaunt­ing their at­trib­utes to­wards males be­fore mat­ing. (Bent, 1951)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Tufted ducks are om­ni­vores whose main source of food are mol­luscs (Mol­lusca). The most preyed upon mol­luscs are zebra mus­sels (Dreis­sena poly­mor­pha). Zebra mus­sels are gen­er­ally very abun­dant in slow mov­ing rivers, canals, docks, reser­voirs, and large areas of fresh­wa­ter. In ad­di­tion, tufted ducks con­sume a va­ri­ety of plant ma­te­ri­als, mostly leaves, stems, and roots. They also oc­ca­sion­ally feed on seeds. They gen­er­ally for­age and feed with other mem­bers of their species. They typ­i­cally dive to­gether, or one after the other very quickly, and stay sub­merged from a few sec­onds to one minute. (Bent, 1951; Olney, 1963)

There are al­ways quan­ti­ties of sand, fine shells, and small stones found within tufted ducks' stom­achs. This species usu­ally con­sumes food un­der­wa­ter; how­ever, when a larger ver­te­brate or plant is being con­sumed they bring that food to the sur­face where they crush the food with their bills be­fore in­gested. (Bent, 1951; Olney, 1963)

• Primary Diet
• omnivore

• Animal Foods
• amphibians
• fish
• insects
• mollusks

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• roots and tubers
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• bryophytes

Pre­da­tion

The main preda­tors of tufted ducks are hu­mans. They are pro­tected by hunt­ing laws dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son (May through early Au­gust); how­ever, they may be hunted dur­ing the rest of the year. They can also be hunted by large birds of prey such as hawks, as well as ter­res­trial preda­tors in­clud­ing foxes, rac­coons, and com­mon snap­ping tur­tles. In ad­di­tion, many an­i­mals prey on their eggs, in­clud­ing do­mes­tic dogs, crows, and skunks. Like many birds, fe­male tufted ducks ex­hibit cryp­tic col­oration to cam­ou­flage them­selves while in­cu­bat­ing the clutch. (Bent, 1951; Cleeves, 2002)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • humans (Homo sapians)
  • domestic dogs (Canis familiaris)
  • large birds of prey (Accipitriformes)
  • common snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina)
  • skunks (Mephitidae)
  • crows (Corvus)
  • raccoons (Procyon)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Adult tufted ducks, eggs, and young are all com­mon sources of food for many preda­tors. In ad­di­tion, they serve as hosts to a species of avian nasal par­a­site. This par­a­site is found in mol­lusks as an in­ter­me­di­ate host, and then are con­sumed by tufted ducks. They are preda­tors of many aquatic in­ver­te­brates, and gen­er­ally have a sig­nif­i­cant im­pact on these pop­u­la­tions. (Bent, 1951; BirdLife In­ter­na­tional, 2011; Cleeves, 2002; Olney, 1963; Rudol­fova, et al., 2002)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Tufted ducks are eco­nom­i­cally im­por­tant for the hunt­ing and game in­dus­try. The only time when the species can­not be hunted is dur­ing breed­ing sea­son. They pro­vide mo­ti­va­tion to con­serve wet­land habi­tats, which are of great eco­nomic im­por­tance to hu­mans. (Miller and Spool­man, 2008)

• Positive Impacts
• food

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known neg­a­tive im­pacts of tufted ducks on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Tufted ducks have a very large ge­o­graphic range and their pop­u­la­tions are not de­clin­ing or fluc­tu­at­ing. The con­ser­va­tion sta­tus of tufted ducks on the IUCN Red list is of least con­cern. The largest threat to tufted ducks is habi­tat loss through human in­duced al­ter­ation. This in­cludes de­struc­tion of wet­lands for human de­vel­op­ment, waste pol­lu­tion, and oil spills. (BirdLife In­ter­na­tional, 2009; BirdLife In­ter­na­tional, 2011)

Tufted ducks are not en­dan­gered. They live in a large area and their num­bers are not de­creas­ing. On the IUCN Red list, they are listed as a species of "least con­cern". Their biggest threat is loss of habi­tat due caused by human ac­tiv­i­ties, in­clud­ing de­stroy­ing wet­lands to build build­ings, and pol­lu­tion from trash or oil spills. (BirdLife In­ter­na­tional, 2009; BirdLife In­ter­na­tional, 2011)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• CITES

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

MayaV. Azzi (au­thor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, RyanJ Gar­ri­son (au­thor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Chris­tine Small (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Rachelle Ster­ling (ed­i­tor), Spe­cial Pro­jects, Cather­ine Kent (ed­i­tor), Spe­cial Pro­jects.

Ref­er­ences

Bent, A. 1951. Life His­to­ries of North Amer­i­can Wild Fowl Ducks, Geese, and Swans. New York: Dover Pub­li­ca­tions Inc.

Bevan, R., J. Speak­man, P. But­ler. 1995. Daily en­ergy ex­pen­di­ture of tufted ducks: a com­pair­son be­tween in­di­rect calorime­try dou­bly la­beled water and heart rate. Func­tional Ecol­ogy, 9: 40-47.

BirdLife In­ter­na­tional, 2011. "Birdlife In­ter­na­tional" (On-line). Species fact­sheet: Aythya fuligula. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 16, 2011 at http://​www.​birdlife.​org/​datazone/​speciesfactsheet.​php?​id=480.

BirdLife In­ter­na­tional, 2009. "The IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 21, 2011 at www.​iucnredlist.​org.

Blums, P., J. Nichols, M. Lind­berg, J. Hines, A. Med­nis. 2003. Fac­tors af­fect­ing breed­ing dis­per­sal of Eu­ro­pean ducks on Eu­gene Marsh, Latvia. Jour­nal of An­i­mal Ecol­ogy, 72: 292-307.

Cleeves, T. 2002. RSPB Hand­book of British Birds. Lon­don: A & C Black Pub­lish­ers Ltd.

De Leeuw, J. 1999. Food in­take rates and habi­tat seg­re­ga­tion of tufted duck Aythya fuligula and scaup Aythya mar­ila ex­ploit­ing zebra mus­sles Dreis­sena poly­mor­pha. Ardea, 87: 15-31.

Dick, G. 2002. "Field Guide to Birds of North Amer­ica" (On-line). Tufted Duck. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 15, 2011 at http://​identify.​whatbird.​com/​obj/​420/_/​Tufted_​Duck.​aspx.

Draulans, D. 1982. For­ag­ing and size se­lec­tion of mus­sles by the tufted duck Aythya fuligula. Jour­nal of An­i­mal Ecol­ogy, 51: 943-956.

Green, J., L. Halsey, P. But­ler. 2005. To what ex­tent is for­ag­ing be­hav­ior of aquatic birds con­strained by their phys­i­ol­ogy?. Phys­i­o­log­i­cal and Bio­chem­i­cal Zo­ol­ogy, 78, 5: 766-781.

Halsey, L., S. Wal­lace, A. Woakes, H. Win­kler, P. But­ler. 2005. Tufted ducks Aytha fuligula do not con­trol buoy­ancy dur­ing div­ing. Jour­nal of Avian Bi­ol­ogy, 36: 261-267.

Hill, D. 1983. Lay­ing date, clutch size and eggs size of the mal­lard Anas platyrhyn­chos and tufted duck Aythya fuligula. IBIS, 126: 484-495.

Hill, D. 1984. Fac­tors af­fect­ing nest suc­cess in the mal­lard and tufted duck. Ornis Scan­di­nav­ica, 15/2: 115-122.

Mason, B. 1996. A Lit­tle Oasis: The Early His­tory of Ash­ton Park West Kirby. 1 & 3 Grove Road, Rock Ferry, Birken­head Wirral CH42 3XS: Coun­tyvise Ltd.

Miller, G., S. Spool­man. 2008. Liv­ing in the En­vi­ron­ment: Prinic­ples, Con­nec­tions, and So­lu­tions. Flo­rence, Ken­tucky: Cen­gage Learn­ing, Inc.

Nils­son, L. 1972. Habi­tat se­lec­tion, food choice, and feed­ing bai­tats of div­ing ducks in coastal wa­ters of South Swe­den dur­ing non-breed­ing sea­son. Ornis Scan­di­nav­ica, 3: 55-78.

Nils­son, L. 2005. Long-term trends and changes in num­bers and dis­tri­b­u­tion of some win­ter­ing wa­ter­fowl species. Acta Zo­o­log­ica Litu­anica, 15/2: 151-157.

Ny­s­trom, K., O. Pehrs­son. 1988. Salin­ity as a con­straint af­fect­ing food and habi­tat choice of mus­cle-feed­ing div­ing ducks. IBIS, 130: 94-110.

Oka, N., M. Ya­ma­muro, J. Hiart­suka, H. Satoh. 1999. Habi­tat se­lec­tion by win­ter­ing tufted ducks with spe­cial ref­er­ence to their di­ges­tive organ and to pos­si­ble seg­re­ga­tion be­tween neigh­bor­ing pop­u­la­tions. Eco­log­i­cal Re­search, 14: 303-315.

Olney, P. 1963. The food and feed­ing habits of tufted duck Aythya fuligula. IBIS, 105/1: 55.

Robin­son, R. 2005. "Tufted Duck Aythya fuligula" (On-line). BTO look­ing out for birds. Ac­cessed March 17, 2011 at http://​blx1.​bto.​org/​birdfacts/​results/​bob2030.​htm.

Rudol­fova, J., J. Sitko, P. Horak. 2002. Nasal schis­to­somes of wild­fowl in the Czech Re­pub­lic and Poland. Folia Par­a­sito­log­ica, 88: 1093-1095.

The Wild­fowl Trust, , Slim­bridge, Glos. 1963. Food and feed­ing habits of the tufted duck Aythya fuligu­lia. In­ter­na­tional Jour­nal of Avi­a­tion and Sci­ence, 105;1: 55-62.

Win­field, I., D. Win­field. 1994. Feed­ing ecol­ogy of the div­ing ducks por­chard (Aythya feri­nal), tufted duck (A. fuligula), scarp (A. mar­ila) and gold­en­eye (Buchep­hala clan­gula) over win­ter­ing on Lough Neagh, North­ern Ire­land. Fresh­wa­ter Bi­ol­ogy, 32: 467-477.